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( 







THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST 
WIRELESS 

















































THERE IT IS !” CRIED JOE, AS THE MUSIC SUDDENLY 
BURST UPON THEIR EARS 

The Radio Boys' First Wireless. Pape 149 





THE RADIO BOYS SERIES 

(Trademark Registered) 


THE RADIO BOYS' 
FIRST WIRELESS 

OR 

WINNING THE FERBERTON PRIZE 

BY 

ALLEN CHAPMAN 

ii 

AUTHOR OF 

THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT 
THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION 
RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE 
RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS, ETC; 


WITH FOREWORD BY 

JACK BINNS 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW YORK 

GROSS ET & DUNLAP 

PUBLISHERS 

Made in the United States of America 




BOOKS FOR BOYS 

By Allen Chapman 


12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. 

THE RADIO BOYS SERIES 

(Trademark Registered) 

THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 
Or Winning the Ferberton Prize 
THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT 
Or The Message that Saved the Ship 
THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION 
Or Making Good in the Wireless Room 
THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS 
Or The Midnight Call for Assistance 
THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE 
Or Solving a Wireless Mystery 


THE RAILROAD SERIES 

RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE 

Or Bound to Become a Railroad Man 
RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER 
Or Clearing the Track 
RALPH ON THE ENGINE 

Or The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail 
RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS 

Or The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer 
RALPH THE TRAIN DESPATCHER 
Or The Mystery of the Pay Car 
RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN 

Or The Young Railroader’s Most Daring Exploit 


GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York 


Copyright, 1922, by 
GROSSET & DUNLAP 


The Radio Boys’ First Wireless 


Published April, 1922 


Ai'fi' 24 1 922 


§>C1. A659733 


$ / 












FOREWORD 


By Jack Binns 

It is very appropriate at this moment when 
radio has taken the country by storm, and aroused 
an enthusiasm never before equaled, that the pos¬ 
sibilities for boys in this art should be brought 
out in the interesting and readable manner shown 
in the first book of this series. 

Radio is still a young science, and some of the 
most remarkable advances in it have been con¬ 
tributed by amateurs—that is, by boy experi¬ 
menters. It is never too late to start in the fas¬ 
cinating game, and the reward for the successful 
experimenter is rich both in honor and 
recompense. 

Just take the case of E. H. Armstrong, one 
of the most famous of all the amateurs in this 
country. He started in as a boy at home, in 
Yonkers, experimenting with home-made ap¬ 
paratus, and discovered the circuit that has rev¬ 
olutionized radio transmission and reception. 
His circuit has made it possible to broadcast 
music and speech, and it has brought him world¬ 
wide fame. 


FOREWORD 


He had no elaborate laboratory in which to ex¬ 
periment, but he persevered and won out. Like 
the Radio Boys in this story, he was confronted 
with all kinds of odds, but with true American 
spirit he stuck to his task and triumphed. 

The attitude of the government toward the 
wireless amateur is well illustrated by the expres¬ 
sions of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, 
and is summed up in his declaration, “I am for 
the American boy.” 

No other country in the world offers such op¬ 
portunities to boy experimenters in the radio field. 
The government realizes that there is always a 
possibility of other important discoveries being 
made by the boy experimented and that is the 
reason it encourages the amateur. 

Don't be discouraged because Edison came be¬ 
fore you. There is still plenty of opportunity 
for you to become a new Edison, and no science 
offers the possibilities in this respect as does radio 
communication. 





CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Auto Crash. 9 

II. Taking Chances.18 

III. Wonders of Wireless.28 

IV. Mysterious Forces.36 

V. Crooked Work.44 

VI. A Practical Object Lesson ...... 55 

VII. In the Dark.62 

VIII. Getting a Start.70 

IX. Work and Fun.79 

X. A Stealthy Rascal.85 

XI. Clever Thinking.91 

XII. Forging Ahead.97 

XIII. Thrashing a Bully.108 

XIV. On the Verge.. .116 

XV. The Finishing Touch.127 

XVI. Sweets of Victory.131 

XVII. The Ferberton Prize.142 

XVIII. Friendly Rivals.151 

XIX. A Splendid Inspiration.156 

XX. The Time of Their Lives.166 

vii 






















CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XXL The Voice That Stuttered 
XXII. The Stolen Set .... 
XXIII. Battering in the Door 
XXIV. On the Trail . . . . 

XXV. The Prize . w .... 


viii 

page 
* . * 179 

« . . 187 
„ . . 191 

M . . 195 

M ... . 204 



THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST 
WIRELESS 


CHAPTER I 

THE AUTO CRASH 

“How about it, Joe?” asked Bob Layton of his 
chum, Joe Atwood, as they came out of school 
one afternoon, swinging their books by straps 
over their shoulders. “Going up to Dr. Dale’s 
house to-riight?” 

“You bet I am,” replied Joe enthusiastically. 
“I wouldn’t miss it for a farm. I’m keen to 
know more about this wireless business, and I’m 
sure the doctor can tell us more about it than 
any one else.” 

“He sure does get a fellow interested,” agreed 
Bob. “He isn’t a bit preachy about it, either. 
Just talks to you in words you can understand. 
But all the time you know he’s got a lot back of 
it and could tell you ten times as much about it 
if you asked him. Makes you feel safe when 
you listen to him. Not a bit of guesswork or 
anything like that.” 



9 


io the radio boys > first wireless 

“What are you fellows chinning about?” asked 
Jimmy Plummer, one of their schoolmates, who 
came up to them at that moment. “You seem 
all worked up about something.” 

“It's about that talk Dr. Dale is going to give 
us to-night on the wireless telephone,” answered 
Bob, as he edged over a little to give Jimmy room 
to walk beside them. “You’re going, aren’t you? 
The doctor said he wanted all the boys to come 
who could.” 

“Do you suppose there’ll be any eats?” asked 
Jimmy, who was round and fat, and who went 
by the nickname of “Doughnuts” among his 
mates because of his fondness for that special 
delicacy. 

“Always thinking of that precious stomach of 
yours 1” laughed Bob. “Jimmy, I’m ashamed of 
you. You’re getting so fat now that pretty soon 
you won’t have to walk to school. You can just 
roll there like a barrel.” 

“You string beans are only jealous because I 
get more fun out of eating than you do,” declared 
Jimmy, with a grin. “But eats or no eats, I’m 
going to hear what the doctor has to say. I got 
a letter the other day from a cousin of mine out 
in Michigan, and he told me all about a set that 
he’d made and put up himself. Said he was just 
crazy about it. Wanted me to go into it so that 
he and I might talk together. Of course, though. 


THE AUTO CRASH 


II 


I guess he was just kidding me about that. 
Michigan’s a long way off, and it takes more than 
a day to get there on a train.” 

“Distance doesn’t make much difference,” de¬ 
clared Bob. “Already they’ve talked across the 
Atlantic Ocean.” 

“Not amateurs ?” objected Joe incredulously. 

“Yes, even amateurs,” affirmed Bob. “My 
dad was reading in the papers the other night 
about a man in New Jersey who was talking to 
a friend near by and told him that he was going 
to play* a phonograph record for him. A man 
over in Scotland, over three thousand miles away, 
heard every word he said and heard the music 
of the phonograph too. A ship two thousand 
miles out on the Atlantic heard the same record, 
and so did another ship in a harbor in Central 
America. Of course, the paper said, that was 
only a freak, and amateur sets couldn’t do that 
once in a million times. But it did it that time, 
all right. I tell you, fellows, that wireless tele¬ 
phone is a wonder. Talk about the stories of 
the Arabian Nights ! They aren’t in it.” 

There was a loud guffaw behind the lads, ac¬ 
companied by snickers, and the friends turned 
around to see three boys following them. 

One of them, who was apparently the leader 
of the trio, was a big, unwieldy boy of sixteen, 
a year older and considerably larger than Bob and 


12 THE RADIO BO.YS 9 FIRST WIRELESS 

Joe. His eyes were close together, and he had 
a look of coarseness and arrogance that denoted 
the bully. Buck Looker, as he was called—his 
first name was Buckley—was generally unpopular 
among the boys, but as he was the son of one 
of the richest men of the town he usually had 
one or two cronies who hung about him for what 
they could get. One of these, Carl Lutz, an un¬ 
wholesome looking boy, somewhat younger than 
Buck, was walking beside him, and on the side 
nearer the curb was Terry Mooney, the youngest 
of the three, a boy whose furtive eyes carried 
in them a suggestion of treachery and sneakiness. 

“What’s the joke, Buck?” asked Bob coldly, 
as he looked from one to the other of the 
sniggering faces. 

“You’re the joke,” answered Buck insolently; 
“that is, if you believe all that stuff I heard you 
pulling off just now. You must be easy if you 
fall for that.” 

“I wasn’t talking to you,” replied Bob, restrain¬ 
ing himself with some difficulty. “But since 
you’ve butted in, perhaps you’ll tell me just what 
it is that’s so funny about the wireless telephone.” 

“The whole thing is bunk, if you ask me,” re¬ 
plied Buck with the confidence that so often goes 
with ignorance. “Telephoning without wires! 
You might as well talk of walking without legs.” 

This argument seemed to him so overpowering 


THE AUTO CRASH 


13 


that he swelled out his chest and looked trium¬ 
phantly at his two companions, whose faces in¬ 
stantly took on the same expression. 

“You made a ten strike that time, Buck,” de¬ 
clared Lutz, clapping him on the shoulder. 

“Hit the target right in the bull’s-eye,” chimed 
in Terry, with a smirk. 

Bob and Joe and Jimmy looked at each other, 
and, despite their resentment, had all they could 
do to keep from breaking into laughter. 

Buck noticed their amused expression, and his 
coarse face grew red and mottled. 

“Well,” he demanded, “what have yon got to 
say to that ? Am I right or ain’t I ?” 

“You’re wrong,” replied Joe promptly. “Dead 
wrong. You’re so far from the truth that you 
couldn’t see it with a telescope. You’re talking 
like a ham sandwich.” 

“Look out what you’re saying, Joe AtwtxM, 
or I’ll make you sorry for it,” threatened Buck, 
as he clinched his fist, an ugly look coming into 
his eyes. 

“I apologize,” said Joe. “That is, I apqlogize 
to the ham sandwich.” 

Bob laid a restraining hand on his friend’s 
arm. 

“Easy, Joe,” he counseled. “Listen, Buck,” 
he went on. “Did you ever hear of Marconi ?” 

“Sure, I did,” replied Buck. “He’s the fellow 


I 4 THE RADIO BOYS? FIRST WIRELESS 

that had the fight with Julius Caesar. The one 
that Cleopatra was dippy about.” 

“No,” said Bob patiently. “You’re thinking 
of Mark Antony. He’s been dead for more than 
eighteen hundred years. The man I mean is a 
very live one. He’s the inventor of wireless 
telegraphy.” 

“Never heard of him,” muttered Buck sullenly. 

“Well, since you never heard of him, we’ll 
mention some one else,” continued Bob. “I was 
only going to say that he’s a pretty brainy fel¬ 
low, and he believes in the wireless telephone. 
Then there’s Edison. Perhaps you’ve heard of 
him?” 

“Of course I have,” blurted Buck furiously. 
“Say, what are you trying to do? Make a fool 
of me?” 

“Nature’s done that already,” Joe put in, but 
Bob checked him. 

“I’m simply trying to show,” Bob explained, 
“that if we’re ‘easy,’ as you call it, in ‘falling for 
that stuff,’ there are a lot of able men in the 
United States who are in the same boat with us. 
In fact there isn’t a man of brains and education 
in the country who doesn’t believe in it.” 

“Do you mean to say that I haven’t any 
brains ?” cried Buck in a fury. 

“Not exactly that,” replied Bob. “But per- 


THE AUTO CRASH 


15 


haps you don’t use what brains you have. That 
happens sometimes, you know.” 

“I guess a fellow’s got a right to his own opin¬ 
ions,” blustered Carl Lutz, coming to the rescue 
of his discomfited leader. 

“Of course he has,” retorted Joe. “But when 
it’s that kind of opinion he aught to put on the 
soft pedal. Any one has a right to have a club 
foot or a hunched back or cross eyes, but he 
doesn’t usually go round boasting of them.” 

“You’re a wise bunch, I’ll tell the world,” 
sneered Buck in lieu of a more stinging retort. 

“Not at all,” replied Joe. “It’s you that claim 
to be wiser than Edison and the rest of them. 
But you mustn’t think because you have water on 
the brain that you’re the whole ocean.” 

The air was full of electricity and matters’ were 
tense between the two groups when a diversion 
came in the form of a halloo from the other side 
of the street, and Herb Fennington, a special 
friend of Bob and Joe, came running over to 
greet them. They stopped for a moment, and 
Buck and his cronies passed on, favoring Bob, 
Joe and Jimmy with malignant scowls as they 
did so. 

“Hello, Herb!” called Bob, as the latter came 
up to them, a little breathless from running. 

“Hello, fellows!” returned Herb, as he looked 


16 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


after Buck and his companions. “What’s up 
with Buck and his gang? Looked as if there was 
going to be a fight about something.” 

“Not so bad as that, I guess,” replied Bob, with 
a laugh, “though Buck did look as though he’d 
like to take a swing at us.” 

“I only wish he had,” grunted Joe. “That 
fellow certainly gets me mad, and I wouldn’t 
mind at all having some excuse for pitching into 
him.” 

“What was it all about?” asked Herb, with 
lively curiosity. 

“He heard us talking about the wireless tele¬ 
phone and butted in,” explained Bob. “Prac¬ 
tically told us we were fools for believing that 
there is such a thing.” 

Herb laughed outright. 

“Sounds like Buck,” he commented. “What 
he doesn’t know would fill a book.” 

“A whole library you mean,” corrected Joe. 

“A library then,” agreed Herb, as the boys 
resumed their walk, which had now brought them 
close to the business part of the town. “But say, 
fellows, forget about Buck and listen to this. 
It’s a good one that I heard yesterday. Why 
is-” 

He was interrupted by a shout from Bob. 

“Look,” he cried, “look at that auto! It’s 
running wild!” 


THE AUTO CRASH iy 

Their startled eyes fallowed the direction of 
Bob’s pointing finger. 

An automobile was describing curious antics 
in the middle of the street. It made short dashes 
here and there, hesitated, zigzagged. Then it 
turned suddenly toward the curb, dashed on the 
sidewalk and amid a crash of broken glass 
plunged through the plate glass windows of a 
store. 


CHAPTER II 


TAKING CHANCES 

There was a moment of stupefaction on the 
part of the boys at the suddenness of what prom¬ 
ised to be a tragedy. Then in a flash they came 
to life. 

‘There was a girl in that auto!” cried Bob, 
as he dashed toward the store, the others follow¬ 
ing close on his heels. “Hurry up, fellows. She 
may be badly hurt.” 

“More likely killed,” muttered Joe. “Don't 
see how any one could live through that.” 

The store through whose windows the car had 
dashed was the largest paint and hardware store 
in the town. The crash had resounded far and 
near, and people were rushing toward it from all 
directions. The boys reached the place first, 
however. They opened the door and raced in, 
only to be greeted with a heavy volume of smoke, 
through which flickered tongues of fire. 

In the midst of a mass of debris was standing 
the wrecked auto. The gasoline tank had been 
18 


TAKING CHANCES 


19 


smashed by the impact, and the contents, luckily 
a small amount, had been scattered over the place 
and come in contact with a stove. The flames 
had spread to a large part of the paints and oils 
and other inflammable materials that the store 
contained. One of the clerks in the place had 
been hit and stunned by the car, while two others, 
together with the proprietor and a customer, were 
making desperate attempts to beat out the flames. 

Bob’s quick eye caught sight of a case of hand 
grenades standing near the entrance, and his qual¬ 
ities of leadership came into play at once. 

“Grab those grenades, you, Herb, and, you, 
Jimmy,” he cried, “and throw them where they’re 
most needed. Come with me, Joe, and get that 
girl out of the car. Quick!” 

In a twinkling, Herb and Jimmy were hurling 
the grenades at the points where the fire seemed 
to have gained most headway, while Bob and Joe 
worked their way over the mass of boxes and 
wrecked fixtures to the place where the runaway 
automobile had ended its mad rush. 

The plate glass windows had reached almost 
to the ground, so that the automobile with its 
great momentum had easily surmounted the sills 
and reached nearly the middle of the store. One 
wheel had been torn off, the windshield was shat¬ 
tered into fragments, and the front of the ma¬ 
chine had been crushed in. 


20 the RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

In the driver's seat, still with her hand on the 
wheel, was the figure of a girl. No sound came 
from her, and from the way her body drooped 
forward, limp and motionless, it was evident that 
she was either unconscious or dead. The boys 
feared the worst, especially when they saw a 
stream of blood trickling down from a wound 
near her temple. 

They worked at top speed, trying to reach her 
and draw her out from the driver’s seat. But 
the bent and tangled mass of wreckage held her 
captive, and it was only after other willing hands 
had come to their assistance that they were able 
to lift her from the car. 

They bore her to a point just outside the door, 
and laid her on some boxes that were hurriedly 
placed side by side. Her eyes were closed and 
she was deadly pale, the whiteness of her face 
being accentuated by the blood that dripped from 
her wound. She was a young girl, apparently 
no more than twenty, and was quietly though 
tastefully dressed. It was evident that she still 
breathed, and a slight fluttering of the eyelids 
indicated that she was returning to consciousness. 

Directly across the street was the Sterling 
House, named after its proprietor, and Mrs. 
Sterling, a motherly looking woman, who> was 
among those who crowded around to look and 
help, recognized the girl at once. 


TAKING CHANCES 21 

“Why, she’s one of our guests!” she exclaimed. 
“Her name is Berwick—Miss Nellie Berwick— 
and she’*s been staying with us for the last three 
days. Some of you bring her across to her room, 
and some oner else hurry and get a doctor. Oh, 
there’s Dr. Ellis now!” she exclaimed with great 
relief, as she descried a tall figure in the crowd 
hurrying to the side of the injured girl. 

Under the doctor’s directions, Bob and Joe, 
assisted by two others, lifted the girl and carried 
her across to the hotel. And while they are en¬ 
gaged in this work of helpfulness, it may be well 
for a better understanding of our story to sketch 
briefly the careers of Bob and Joe and their 
friends and the surroundings in which they had 
been brought up. 

Bob Layton was the son of Henry Layton, the 
leading druggist and chemist of the town. Bob 
had been born and brought up in Clintonia, which 
was a thriving town of about ten thousand inhab¬ 
itants in an Eastern state, about seventy-five miles 
from New York City. It was located on the 
Shagary river, a stream that afforded abundant 
opportunities for boating, fishing, and swimming, 
and was a source of endless pastime and recrea¬ 
tion for the boys. 

Bob, at the time this story opens, was fifteen 
years old, of rather dark complexion, and was tall 
and well-developed for his age. He was vigor- 


22 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

ous and athletic and a lover of outdoor sports. 
His magnetism and vitality made him a ‘dive 
wire,” and he was the natural leader among the 
boys with whom he associated. His nature was 
frank and friendly, and he was extremely popular 
with all those who were worth while. With that 
he had a quick temper, which he had learned, 
however, to keep under control. He never 
looked for trouble, but at the same time he never 
side-stepped it, and any one who tried to bulldoze 
and impose on him speedily found that he had 
picked out the wrong person. 

Joe Atwood, Bob’s special chum, was a boy of 
about the same age and was the son of Dr. At¬ 
wood, a prominent and respected physician of the 
town. Between him and Bob a warm friendship 
existed, and where one was found the other was 
certain to be not very far off. He had a fair com¬ 
plexion with merry blue eyes, that, however, 
could flash fire on occasion. As has already been 
seen in his interchanges with Buck Looker, he had 
a “quick trigger” tongue, and was likely to say 
a thing first and regret it afterward, because he 
had gone perhaps too far. Bob, as the more self 
controlled of the chums, served as a sort of check 
on the impulsiveness of his friend, and had many 
times kept him out of trouble. Joe shared Bob’s 
fondness for athletic sports, and, like him, was 


TAKING CHANCES 


23 

a leading spirit in the baseball and football teams 
of the town. 

Another thing that drew the boys together was 
their keen interest in anything pertaining to 
science. Each had marked mechanical ability, 
and would at any time rather put a contrivance 
together by their own efforts than to have it 
bought for them ready made. It was this quality 
that had made them enthusiastic regarding the 
wonders of the wireless telephone. 

Herbert Fennington was a year younger than 
the others and the son of one of the principal 
merchants of Clintonia. He was lively, full of 
fun and jokes and an all-around “good fellow.” 

Jimmy Plummer was fourteen, round, fat, 
lazy, and good-natured, and a great lover of the 
good things of life. His father was a carpenter, 
thrifty, respected and a good citizen. 

As the boys all lived on West Main Street, a 
pleasant, shaded street about a quarter of a mile 
from the business center of the town, and within 
a few doors of each other, they were naturally 
thrown much together both in the daytime and 
when in the evenings they foregathered at each 
other’s homes to study together the lessons for 
the next day or to indulge in a few hours of fun 
and recreation. 

The boys reached the hotel with their helpless 


24 the RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

burden and carried the girl upstairs to her room, 
where Mrs. Sterling had everything in readiness 
for her reception. Then the doctor took her in 
hand and the boys withdrew to the lobby of the 
hotel, where they planned to wait for a few min¬ 
utes until the results of the doctor’s examination 
could become known. 

Now for the first time since the excitement 
began they had time to think of themselves, and 
when they looked at each other they could hardly 
forbear from laughing outright at the picture 
they presented. They were begrimed with 
smoke and grease, their clothes were rumpled and 
soiled, and Bob’s sleeve had been split from shoul¬ 
der to elbow, where it had been caught by a 
jagged strip of the material of the wrecked 
car. 

“You look like a stoker from the hold of an 
ocean steamer,” gibed Joe, as he looked at the 
unkempt figure of his friend. 

“It’s dollars to doughnuts that you look just 
as bad,” responded Bob, with a grin, as he made 
a t>reak for the washroom, followed by his chum. 

In the work of washing themselves, they found 
that it was not only their clothes and appearance 
that had suffered. Each had a number of 
scratches and blisters that they had not felt dur¬ 
ing the stirring period of rescue but that now 
made their presence known. But these, after all, 


TAKING CHANCES £5 

were trifles, and they took them as simply a part 
of the day’s work. 

They had only a few minutes to wait before 
the tall figure of the doctor emerged from the 
sick room and descended the stairs. The expres¬ 
sion on his face reassured them, as they hurried 
forward to hear his verdict. 

“There's no danger,” he declared, as soon as 
he came within speaking distance, “though how 
she got off as easily as she did is almost a miracle. 
The crushed front and top of the machine acted 
as a sort of protection for her. The cut on the 
side of the face must have been made by a splinter 
of flying glass from the windshield. What she 
is suffering principally from is shock, and that’s 
no wonder; Even one of you rough and ready 
youngsters-,” he added with a smile, “would find 
it a shock to go flying through a plate glass 
window.” 

“Sure thing,” said Bob in reply. “I’m mighty 
glad to know that things aren’t any worse with 
her. I didn’t think when we rushed in that we’d 
find her alive at all.” 

“You boys deserve great credit for the quick¬ 
ness and decision with which you acted,” the doc¬ 
tor said gravely. “The fire might have reached 
her in a few seconds more. I’m told that the 
auto caught fire just after you got her out. 

“By the way,” he added, as he started to leave 


26 THE RADIO BOYS 1 FIRST WIRELESS 


the hotel, "she has been told of the way you 
rescued her, and she is very grateful. She 
wanted me to let you come in so that she could 
thank you in person, but in her present weakened 
state I didn’t think it advisable. I told her, 
though, that I would speak to you about it, and 
that if you so desired you could call on her to¬ 
morrow.” 

“We’ll be glad to,” answered Bob, and Joe 
nodded his assent as the doctor with a wave of 
the hand went down the steps. 

The boys followed him a moment later and 
went across the street to' view the scene of the 
wreck. The fire had been put out, and the local 
fire company, which had been summoned to the 
scene, was rolling up the hose and getting ready 
to depart. The proprietor and clerks of the 
store, with the aid of volunteers, had drawn the 
wreck of the partly burned automobile from the 
store, and it stood in the street, a melancholy ruin. 
It was clear that as an auto its day of usefulness 
was over. 

A large crowd still lingered about the spot, 
discussing the accident, which by its unique fea¬ 
tures had thoroughly stirred up the town. It 
was not often that an auto took a flying leap into 
a store and the story of why and how it hap¬ 
pened was sure to furnish a topic of discussion 
for many days to come. 


TAKING CHANCES 


27 


Bob and Joe, as two of the principal figures in 
the event, were surrounded at once and besieged 
with questions. Many were the commendations 
also that were showered upon them for their 
courage and presence of mind. 

“Oh, that wasn't much,” protested Bob. <r We 
just happened to be close at hand when the auto 
went crazy. Anybody else would have done the 
same.” 

“Of course they would,” broke in Buck 
Looker, who with his cronies was standing close 
by. “People are making an awful fuss about a 
little thing, it seems to me. How about the work 
we did in helping to put out the fire?” 

“Did you?” asked Jimmy Plummer. “That’s 
news to me. Look at your hands and clothes. 
They haven’t got a mark on them. I saw you 
standing around outside, and you didn’t lift a 
finger.” 

“You keep your mouth shut or I’ll shut it for 
you,” cried Buck angrily. “You’re getting alto¬ 
gether too fresh.” 

Jimmy was about to retort, but just then there 
came an interruption. 


CHAPTER III 


WONDERS OF WIRELESS 

“How are you, boys ?” asked a pleasant voice, 
and the lads looked up to see Dr. Amory Dale, 
the pastor of the “Old First Church” of Clintonia, 
standing beside them. 

Most of them responded cordially, for they 
liked and respected him. There was no stiffness 
or professionalism about him to make them feel 
that they were being held at a distance. He was 
comparatively young, somewhere in the early 
thirties, and had the frame and bearing of an ath¬ 
lete. There were rumors that he had been a star 
pitcher on his college baseball nine and a quarter¬ 
back on a football eleven whose exploits were still 
cherished in the memory of his institution. He 
was a lover of the out-of-doors and there was a 
breeziness and vitality that radiated from him and 
made him welcome wherever he went. He kept 
in touch with modern science, and it was said that 
he would have embraced a scientific career if he 
had not felt it his duty to enter the pulpit. 

28 


WONDERS OF WIRELESS 


29 


“You boys seem to have had a strenuous time 
of it,” he said, as he looked with an amused 
smile at the torn and soiled clothes of Bob and 
Joe as well as the scratches and blisters that 
marked them. “I hear that you covered yourself 
with glory. Tell me more about it.” 

They went into all the details they knew, pass¬ 
ing over as rapidly as possible their own part in 
the affair, and Dr. Dale listened attentively. 

“Good work,” he commented. “The occasion 
came and you were equal to it, and that’s all that 
can be asked of anybody. I think I’ll step over 
to the Sterling House now and see if I can be of 
any help to the poor girl who has had such a 
trying experience. By the way, boys, I hope 
you won’t forget about that wireless talk up at 
my house to-night. I’m looking for you all to 
come if possible, and I’ll do my best to see that 
you have a good time.” 

“We’re sure of that,” replied Bob, with a 
smile. “And we haven’t been thinking of much 
else since you first asked us to come. In fact, 
we were talking about it just before the accident. 

“That’s good,” replied the doctor. “You com¬ 
ing too, Buckley?” he asked, turning to Buck, 
who with his cronies was standing grouchily a 
little apart from the others. 

Buck stammered something which could be 
hardly understood, but which was interpreted by 


" 


30 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

the doctor as a negative. The minister did not 
press the matter, but with a pleasant wave of the 
hand that included them all he went across the 
street. 

“He’s a brick, isn’t he?” remarked Bob, as 
he looked after him. 

“You bet he is,” agreed Joe emphatically. 

“All wool and a yard wide,” was Herb’s trib¬ 
ute, as the boys, having gathered up their books, 
which in the excitement had been thrown wher¬ 
ever they happened to fall, resumed their walk 
toward their homes, leaving Buck and his mates 
glowering after them. 

There was no lack of animated conversation 
around their supper tables that night. Bob’s par¬ 
ents made no secret of the fact that they were 
proud of their son’s part in the day’s work. Joe, 
too, found himself made much of in the family 
circle, not only by his father and mother, but by 
his sister Rose, who hovered about him forestall¬ 
ing his wants and showing him a deference that 
would have been highly flattering if it had not 
been also somewhat embarrassing. Rose, a year 
or so younger than Joe, was all aflutter with the 
romantic possibilities of the affair. A young girl 
in distress! Joe to the rescue! What could be 
more interesting? 

“Was she pretty, Joe?” she asked. 

“Blest if I know,” her brother answered briefly. 


WONDERS OF WIRELESS 


31 

“Pass me some more of that roast veal, Sis, It 
goes right to the spot.” 

With a sigh, Rose complied. Joe was so 
practical! 

Herb and Jimmy came in for a modified share 
of applause because of the help they had rendered 
by their prompt and efficient handling of the fire 
grenades, which had held the flames under con¬ 
trol until the fire department could get to the 
place and complete the job. 

The minister’s house adjoined the big stone 
church, which was on West Main Street and di¬ 
vided the business from the residential part of 
the street. It was a roomy, capacious structure, 
and at about eight o’clock that night it became 
a place of pilgrimage for a large number of the 
boys of the town. Buck Looker and his cronies 
were conspicuous by their absence, but this was 
a relief rather than a privation. 

Bob and his friends were among the first com¬ 
ers. They were warmly greeted by Dr. Dale and 
ushered into the large living room of the parson¬ 
age. The portieres had been drawn back between 
the front and back rooms so that nearly the whole 
ground floor was thrown into one big room. 
Extra chairs had been brought in so that there 
were accommodations for a large number. There 
were no grown people in the gathering, for the 
doctor had especially confined his invitation to 


22 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

the hoys, who, he knew, would feel more at ease 
in the absence of their elders, 

“There’s Talley’s wagon,” remarked Jimmy, as 
he noted the presence at the curb of a vehicle 
bearing the name of the leading caterer of the 
town. “I’ll bet we’re going to have some eats.” 

“And you’ve just come from the supper table!” 
exclaimed Bob. 

“He’s like a trolley car,” chaffed Joe. “You 
Can always crowd more into it.” 

“Don’t you know the doctor’s going to give 
you a feast of reason?” asked Herb with mock 
gravity. 

“Reason’s all right,” admitted Jimmy, “but 
there isn’t much nourishment in it.” 

“How about a flow of soul?” asked Boh. 

“Nothing against it,” Jimmy answered, “but 
a flow of lemonade has its good points too.” 

From the time the boys entered the room their 
eyes were fixed on a box-like contrivance that 
was placed on a table close up against the wall 
of the further room. It had a number of pol¬ 
ished knobs and dials and several groups of wires 
that seemed to lead in or out of the instrument. 
Connected with it was a horn such as was com¬ 
mon enough in the early days of the phonograph. 
There were also several pairs of what looked like 
telephone ear pieces lying on the table. 

They eyed it with intense curiosity, not un- 


WONDERS OF WIRELESS 


33 


mixed with awe. They had already heard and 
read enough of the wireless telephone to realize 
that it was one of the greatest marvels of modern 
times. It seemed almost like something magical, 
something which, like the lamp of Aladdin, could 
summon genii who would be obedient to the call. 

The rooms were comfortably filled when Dr. 
Dale, with a genial smile, rose and took up his 
stand near the table. 

“Now, boys,” he said, “I’ve asked you to come 
here to-night so that we can talk together and 
get a little better idea of some of the wonders of 
the world we are living in. One of those won¬ 
ders and perhaps the most wonderful of all is 
the wireless telephone,” and here he laid his hand 
on the box beside him. “Most of you have heard 
of it and want to learn more about it. I’m going 
to try to explain it to you just as simply as I pos¬ 
sibly can. And I’m not going to do all the talk¬ 
ing either, for I want you to feel free to ask any 
questions you like. And before I do any talking 
worth mentioning, I’m going to give you a little 
idea of what the wireless telephone can do.” 

The boys watched him breathlessly as he 
handled two of the knobs at the side of the box. 
A moment later they heard the clear, vibrant 
notes of a violin playing a beautiful selection from 
one of the operas. The music rose and swelled 
in wonderful sweetness until it filled the room 


34 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

with the delicious melody and held all the hearers 
entranced under its spell. It was evident that 
only the hand of a master could draw such ex¬ 
quisite music from the instrument. 

The doctor waited until the last notes had died 
away, and smiled with gratification as he saw 
the rapt look on the faces of his visitors. 

“Sounds as if it were in the next room, doesn’t 
it?” he asked. “But that music came from 
Newark, New Jersey.” 

“Gee,” whispered Jimmy to Bob, alongside 
whom he was sitting, “that’s nearly a hundred 
miles from here.” 

“But there’s no need of confining ourselves to 
any place as near as that,” continued the doctor. 
“What do you say to listening in on Pittsburg? 
That’s only a trifle of four hundred miles or so 
from here.” 

“He calls four hundred miles a trifle!” 
breathed Jimmy. “Pinch me, somebody. I 
must be dreaming.” 

Joe on his other side pinched him so sharply 
that Jimmy almost jumped from his chair. 

“Lay off there,” he murmured indignantly. 

“S-sh,” cautioned Bob, for by this time the 
doctor had made another adjustment. 

Then into the room burst the stirring strains 
of the “Stars and Stripes Forever” played by a 
band that had a national reputation. The rhythm 


WONDERS OF WIRELESS 


35 


and dash and fire of the performance were such 
that the boys had all they could do to keep their 
seats, and, as it was, their feet half unconsciously 
beat time to the music. 

“Hit you hard, did it?” smiled Dr. Dale, who, 
to tell the truth, had been keeping time himself. 
“Well, I don’t wonder. I’d hate to see the time 
when music like that wouldn’t shake you up. 
But now we’ll go a few hundred miles farther and 
see what Detroit has to give us.” 

Jimmy was past speech by this time and could 
only look at his comrades in helpless wonder. 

Then the twang of a banjo sounded through 
the rooms and to the thrumming of the strings 
came a voice in rich negro dialect: 

“It rained all night the day I left, 

The next day it was dry, 

The sun so hot I froze to death 
Susanna, don’t you cry.” 


CHAPTER IV 


MYSTERIOUS FORCES 

The boys broke out in roars of laughter in 
which the doctor joined heartily. 

“You see how it is,” he said, as the song came 
to an end. “There’s hardly anything you can 
think of that you can’t hear over the wireless 
telephone. It takes you anywhere you want to 
go in a fraction of a second. In the last few 
minutes, we’ve covered quite a section of the 
United States, and with a still stronger instru¬ 
ment we could go right out to the Pacific coast 
and hear the barking of the sea lions at the 
Golden Gate.” 

“Wonder if we could hear the barking of the 
hot dogs at Coney Island,” whispered the irre¬ 
pressible Herb, who would have his joke. 

Bob nudged him sharply and Herb subsided. 

“And you can pick out any kind of entertain¬ 
ment you want,” the doctor went on. “The great 
stations from which this music was sent out have 
programs which are published every day, to- 
36 


MYSTERIOUS FORCES 


37i 


gether with the exact time that the selections will 
be given. At a given minute you can make your 
adjustment and listen to a violin solo, a band con¬ 
cert, a political speech, a sermon, or anything else 
that you want. If it doesn’t please you, you can 
shut it off at once, which is much easier and pleas¬ 
anter than getting up and going out from an 
audience. 

“We’ll have some more selections later on in 
the evening,” he continued, “but now I want to 
explain to you how this thing is done. I can’t 
hope to do much more than touch the surface of 
the subject to-night, for I don’t want to tire you 
out, and there’ll be plenty of other nights and 
days when I hope you boys will call upon me for 
any information that you want and I can give. 

“Of course the whole thing is based on elec¬ 
tricity, the most wonderful thing that perhaps 
there is in the whole physical world. Nobody 
knows what electricity is—Mr. Edison himself 
doesn’t know. We only know that it is a won¬ 
derful fluid and that the ether is full of it. But 
though we don’t know what it is, scientific men 
have learned how to develop and use its energy, 
and among other things they have harnessed it 
in the service of the wireless telephone. 

“Take for instance a quiet lake. It may seem 
absolutely still, but if you throw a stone in it 
you start a number of ripples that keep spreading 


38 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

further and further out until they break on the 
shore. So if you hit a drum with a stick, sound 
waves are stirred up that keep spreading out very 
much like the ripples on the lake. 

“Now electricity is something like that. It 
doesn’t begin to act until you do something to it. 
The impulse to ripple is in the quiet lake all the 
time, but it doesn’t ripple until you throw the 
stone in it. The sound quality is in the drum, 
but you don’t hear it until you hit the drum with 
a stick. So you’ve got to put into the ether some¬ 
thing that disturbs the electricity in it, something 
that stirs it up, and then this disturbance makes 
waves that travel on, just as the waves on the 
lake follow one another and just as the sound 
waves from the drum keep pushing each other 
along. 

“A man named Hertz discovered a way of 
stirring up this energy, snapping it, you might 
say, as a man snaps a whip. It was found that 
these waves could be made long enough and 
strong enough to go all the way across the At¬ 
lantic Ocean, in fact to go around the world. 

“Around the world!” murmured Jimmy, and 
again he was tempted to ask somebody to pinch 
him, but remembered his previous experience and 
stopped just in time. 

“Now,” continued the doctor, “you may ask 
what this has to do with the voice, for it is with 


MYSTERIOUS FORCES 


39 


the voice that one talks over the ’phone. The 
whole principle of the wireless telephone is based 
on the fact that sound can be transformed into 
electricity and then can be transformed back into 
sound again. I know,” he said, with a smile, 
“that that sounds very much like saying that you 
can make eggs into an omelet and then get the 
omelet back into separate eggs again”—here there 
was an audible snicker from the boys—“but that 
is very much like what is done by the wireless, 
although it doesn’t exactly fit the case. 

“Now see what a wonderful increase in power 
you get the moment the sound waves are changed 
into electric waves. Sound goes at the rate of 
one thousand and ninety feet a second. Electrical 
energy travels at the rate of one hundred and 
eight-six thousand miles a second. In other 
words it could go around the world more than 
seven times in a single second. 

“When you speak into a telephone, unless you 
are greatly excited, you don’t use more than a 
fiftieth part of the power of your voice. But by 
the time that sound has been caught up and 
churned, as it were, into electrical energy it is 
more than a hundred thousand times as loud and 
strong. 

“Suppose now, just as an illustration, that you 
were going to telephone to Europe. You’d pick 
up the ’phone and give your message. That 


40 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

sound would go in the form of a tiny electrical 
impulse into one of the great sending stations on 
the Atlantic Coast, we’ll say, and there it would 
be caught up by a powerful lot of electrical ma¬ 
chines, amplifiers, alternators, and others, that 
would keep making it stronger and stronger until 
finally it was flung out into space from the ends 
of the great wires or antennae. Out and out it 
would go until it struck a lot of wires on the other 
side of the ocean. Then it would go through an¬ 
other process that would gradually change the 
electrical impulse back into sound again, and the 
man at the other end of the telephone would hear 
your voice, just as one does now when you ’phone 
to any one in this town.” 

He paused for a moment, and there was a long 
drawn breath on the part of his auditors that tes¬ 
tified to the rapt attention with which they had 
followed him into this fairyland of science. 

“So much for the theory and principle of the 
tireless,” resumed the doctor. “Of course I’ve 
only scratched the surface, and if I talked to you 
all night there’d be still lots left to say. But we 
only need to know a little about it to put it to prac¬ 
tical use. And it is the practical use 6f the wire¬ 
less telephone that Fm especially interested in for 
the sake of you boys. Fm satisfied that there’s 
hardly anything that could give you more pleas¬ 
ure or more benefit than for each of you to have 


MYSTERIOUS FORCES 


41 


one of these contrivances in your own home. 
It’s a wonderful educator, it helps to develop your 
interest in science, and what will perhaps appeal 
to you most of all, you can have more fun with it 
than anything else I know of.” 

Here Bob put in a question that was in the 
minds of many of the others. 

“Does it cost very much, Doctor ?” he asked. 

“Not very much,” the doctor replied. “Of 
course, some of the more powerful ones with 
vacuum tubes and other high class improvements 
run into the hundreds of dollars. But some very 
good receiving sets—and that’s all you could use 
at the start, for it takes considerable time and you 
have to get a license before you are permitted to 
transmit—can be bought for from twenty-five to 
seventy-five dollars.” 

There was a little gasp at this, some of which 
was due to a feeling of disappointment. It 
seemed beyond the range of what they could save 
up from their pocket money, and while the par¬ 
ents of some of them were well to do, others came 
from simple and frugal homes where every dollar 
had to be carefully counted. 

The doctor was quick to note the expression 
on many faces, and took pains at once to remove 
any feeling of discouragement. 

“But don’t let that bother you at all,” he said, 
“for with a little thought and planning any one 


42 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

of you will be able to build a telephone receiving 
set for himself at hardly any cost at all. In fact, 
I’d much rather have you build one than buy one, 
for in that way you’ll get an understanding of 
the whole thing that otherwise you might not get 
at all. You’d be surprised perhaps if I told you 
that this set here was built by me and I wouldn’t 
exchange the experience I’ve had in putting it to¬ 
gether for a good deal of money.” 

“But you knew how to do it,” put in Joe, 
“while we don’t know the first thing about it. 
We wouldn’t know how to start, even, let alone 
finish one.” 

“I was coming to that,” returned Dr. Dale, 
smiling. “As some of you know, I’ve fitted up 
a workshop in the barn behind this house where 
I do a good deal of tinkering in my spare hours. 
Now I’m going to ask you boys to come out there 
next Saturday and see me build a wireless re¬ 
ceiving set from A to Z. You’ll be surprised to 
see how much can be done with a few things that 
cost very little money and with a lot of things 
that don’t cost any money at all. How about it, 
boys ?” 

It was almost with a whoop that the invitation 
was accepted by his eager hearers, and the min¬ 
ister smiled with gratification at their enthusiasm. 

“Now that’s all the talking I’m going to do 
to-night,” he said. “And as talking’s rather dry 


MYSTERIOUS FORCES 


43 

work, I’m going to have a little refreshment. 
Will you boys join me?” 

Would they join him? They would and they 
did, and the havoc they wrought on the sand¬ 
wiches and cake and ice-cream that were brought 
in and passed around was something to be re¬ 
membered. Jimmy in particular ate until his 
eyes bulged and fully sustained his previous rep¬ 
utation. And while they ate, the doctor turned 
on one lively selection after another, finishing 
with a selection from a jazz band that sent them 
into a frenzy of laughter. 

They were still tingling with it as they finally 
said good-night to the doctor and started on their 
way home. 

“Oh, you wireless telephone!” exclaimed Herb. 

“Isn’t it a wonder ?” ejaculated Joe. 

“Wonder!” repeated Bob. “It’s a miracle!” 


CHAPTER y 


CROOKED WORK 

“We’ve got to get busy right away and rig up 
wireless telephones of our own,” continued Bob. 
“Of course they won’t be anything like the doc¬ 
tor’s, but they ought to be good enough for us 
to get a lot of fun out of them.” 

“You bet we will,” agreed Joe. “Gee, I can’t 
wait to get at it! If it wasn’t so late I believe 
I’d start in figuring on it to-night.” 

“Count me in on it too,” chimed in Jimmy. 
“In a week or so we’ll be sending messages every¬ 
where. I’ll be talking maybe to that cousin of 
mine in Michigan.” 

“Come out of your trance, Jimmy,” laughed 
Bob, clapping him on the shoulder. “Things 
don’t move so fast as that. It’ll be a good long 
time before you’ll be sending any messages. 
You’ll have to leam all about receiving them first; 
and believe me there’s a good deal to leam about 
that. Then before you can send any messages 
you have to pass an examination and get a li- 
44 


CROOKED WORK 


45 


cense. But for quite a time we’ll have our hands 
full and our ears full with attending to the re¬ 
ceiving end of the game. One step at a time is 
the rule in radio, as well as in anything else that’s 
jvorth while.” 

“I didn’t know that,” replied Jimmy, some¬ 
what dashed by the information. “I had an idea 
that we could send just as soon as we got our sets 
made.” 

“How about you, Herb?” asked Bob. 
“You’re in it with the rest of us too, aren’t you?” 

“With both feet,” replied Herb. “I think that 
the wireless is the greatest thing that ever hap¬ 
pened. But I don’t know about making one for 
myself. I’m all thumbs when it comes to doing 
any mechanical work. You fellows are handy 
with tools, but I have* all I can do to keep out 
of my own way. I guess I’ll ask my dad to buy 
me a set and let it go at that.” 

“That’s what you think now,” replied Joe, 
“but I’ll bet when you see the rest of us getting 
busy, you’ll pitch in too and make your own ma¬ 
chine. Besides, from what the doctor says, it 
doesn’t take a genius to put the thing together.” 

They separated for the night with their heads 
still full of the wonders they had heard and seen, 
and the enthusiasm, was still with them when they 
woke the next morning. 

At the breakfast tables the conversation was 


46 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

divided between their experience of the night be¬ 
fore and the newspaper account of the auto acci¬ 
dent A good deal of space was devoted to the 
latter, and it was gratifying to learn that although 
the damage to the store had been considerable 
the loss was covered by insurance and that the 
young lady whose automobile had crashed into the 
store had not been seriously injured and was ex¬ 
pected to be around again in a few days. The 
coolness and courage with which Bob and Joe 
had acted and the part played by Herb and Jimmy 
in checking the spread of the flames were not 
overlooked. The comment that went with it was 
warm and appreciative, so much so in fact that, 
while the boys were not wholly displeased with 
it, they felt, as Joe expressed it, that the reporter 
was “spreading it on too thick” and feared that 
they would have to undergo no end of “joshing” 
from their mates. 

Their lessons in school that day did not receive 
all the attention that was»due them, for their minds 
were taken up pretty fully by the events of the 
last twenty-four hours. But three o'clock came 
at last, and with it came the reminder that they 
were to call on their way home at the Sterling 
House, in order to see Miss Berwick, in accord¬ 
ance with her request of the day before. 

Bustling, motherly Mrs. Sterling greeted Bob 


CROOKED WORK fa 

and Joe with a smile, as they made known their 
errand. 

“So here are the young heroes that the paper 
has been making so much fuss about,” she said 
mischievously, and Bob and Joe blushed to their 
ears. “Just wait a minute until I run up and 
see if Nellie is ready to receive you.” 

“If it’s too late, we can wait until another 
day,” said Bob. 

“Oh, no,” replied Mrs. Sterling. “She’s been 
looking forward to your coming all day and has 
spoken about it a number of times. She is very 
anxious to thank you both, and I’m sure it will 
do her good to see you. The doctor was here 
this morning and said it would be all right. Of 
course, it won’t do to stay too long, for the poor 
lamb is still rather nervous after her accident, and 
no wonder. Just wait here a minute.” 

She disappeared, but a moment later was at 
the head of the stairs motioning to them to 
come up. 

They were ushered into a bright, sunny room, 
where they found Miss Berwick resting in an easy 
chair, propped up with pillows. 

She was a pretty girl with blue eyes and brown 
hair and regular features. Her age appeared to 
be about twenty. Her face was pale, as was nat¬ 
ural under the circumstances, but it lighted up 


48 the RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

with a friendly and grateful smile as the party 
entered. 

She extended her hand to the boys in turn, as 
Mrs. Sterling introduced them. 

“You must excuse my not rising,” she said, 
“but I’ve had a rather nerve-racking experience, 
as no one knows better than yourselves. I want 
to thank you with all my heart for the way you 
came to my help when I was unable to help 
myself.” 

“Oh, you make too much of it, Miss Berwick,” 
Bob replied, and Joe assented with a nod of his 
head. “We just had the good luck to be close 
at hand, and if we hadn’t done it, somebody else 
would.” 

“That doesn’t change the fact that you did it,” 
replied the girl. “And you took a chance of los¬ 
ing your lives. The gasoline tank might have ex¬ 
ploded and killed us all.” 

“We’re mighty glad that you came out of it 
as well as you did,” said Bob warmly. 

“It’s almost a miracle that you weren’t killed,” 
added Joe. 

“I suppose I deserve a severe scolding for hav¬ 
ing caused all this excitement and damage,” was 
the response. “I don’t know what on earth 
caused the accident. There seemed to be some¬ 
thing the matter with the steering gear. Then 
I got excited and dizzy and tried to stop the ma- 


CROOKED WORK 


49 


chine. What I think happened was that I put 
my foot on the accelerator when I meant to put 
it on the brake. Then when I saw that the car 
was plunging toward the window, I either fainted 
or was made unconscious later from the shock. 
After the first awful crash I didn’t know any¬ 
thing more until I woke in this room and found 
the doctor bending over me.” 

‘“You’re a stranger to this town, aren’t you?” 
asked Bob, with an idea of getting her mind off 
the subject, which he could see was beginning to 
excite her. “Mrs. Sterling was telling us that 
you had only been here for a few days.” 

“Yes,” responded the girl. “I live in the town 
of Lisburn, about ten miles from here. I’m all 
alone in the world”—here a shade of sadness 
passed over her expressive face. “My father 
and mother are dead and I live with an aunt of 
mine. I never had any brothers or sisters. My 
father died some months ago and left me some 
property, and it was in connection with that mat¬ 
ter that I came to Clintonia. This is the county 
seat, you know, and I wanted to consult the rec¬ 
ords in the office of the County Clerk. There 
seems to be a terrible tangle about the whole 
thing. Perhaps it was because I became so ner¬ 
vous over the matter that things went wrong 
yesterday.” 

“I’m sorry that you’ve had so much trouble/* 


5 o THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

said Bob sympathetically, “and I hope that it will 
all come out right in a little while.” 

“If it were just a little confusion or mistake, 
it probably would,” replied Miss Berwick, with 
a touch of despondency in her manner. “But 
there’s dishonesty involved. I know there is, 
but I don’t see how I’m going to prove it.” 

“Do you mean that somebody’s trying to cheat 
you out of your property?” asked Bob, with 
quickened interest. 

“It must be the meanest kind of a rascal that 
would swindle an orphan,” put in Joe indignantly. 

“I’m afraid there are only too many of that 
kind in the world,” replied the girl, with a faint 
smile in which there was no trace of mirth. “You 
see I’ve never had the least bit of business train¬ 
ing and I suppose I would be easy prey. But I’m 
afraid I’m boring you with my troubles,” she 
added, catching herself up suddenly. 

“Not at all,” replied Bob, as Joe also made a 
gesture of dissent. “In fact I hope you’ll go 
right ahead and tell us all about it. Of course 
we don’t know much about law, but our fathers 
have lived in this town for years and know al¬ 
most everybody in the county, and they may be 
able to be of some service to you. Who is the 
rascal that you think is trying to cheat you out 
of your property?” 

“I don’t suppose you know him,” replied the 


CROOKED WORK 


51 

girl, visibly cheered by the sympathy and inter¬ 
est of the boys. “His name is Cassey—Dan 
Cassey, and he lives in the town of Elwood, only 
a few miles from Lisburn. He held a mortgage 
of four thousand dollars on my father’s house. 
When father was taken with his last illness he 
was very anxious that the mortgage should be 
paid so that he could leave the house to me free 
and clear. He had enough money in the bank to 
pay it and he had me draw it out and keep it in 
the house. He intended to settle the matter him¬ 
self, but death came to him before he could attend 
to it. 

“I knew what his wishes were, and as soon as 
the funeral was over I went to see Cassey and 
told him that I wanted to pay off the mortgage. 
I saw his eyes glisten when I told him that I had 
the money at home to do it with. Of course, 
I realize now that I ought to have had a lawyer 
attend to the business for me, but, as I say, I 
have never had any experience in business and 
I had a general idea that most men were honest 
and that there’d be no trouble about it. Cassey 
made an appointment for me to come to his office 
the next day with the money. When I went 
there he was alone. He usually has a stenog¬ 
rapher, but I suppose he had sent her away so 
that there would be no witnesses. I gave him 
the money in bills.” 



52 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

‘Then of course you got a receipt for it,” in¬ 
terrupted Bob. 

“No, I didn't,” replied the young girl, her face 
flushing. “Oh, don't think that I didn’t have 
sense enough to ask for one,” she said, as she 
saw the boys look at each other in surprise. “I 
did ask him for one, but he said that the mort¬ 
gage itself would be a sufficient receipt and he 
would go over to the bank where he kept it in 
his safety deposit box and get it for me. Then 
he looked at his watch, and seemed surprised 
when he saw that it was past banking hours and 
too late to get it that day. He said he was aw¬ 
fully sorry, but that he would get it for me the 
next day and made an appointment for me to 
call and get it at his office. He seemed so sorry 
that he wasn’t able to give it to me on the spot 
that I took it for granted that it would be all 
right and agreed to come the next day and get 
it. 

“I did go about noon the following day, but 
he wasn’t there. His stenographer said that he 
had been suddenly called away to Chicago by a 
telegram. I asked her when he would be back, 
and she said that she didn’t know. Then I asked 
her if he had left any word or any papers for 
me and she said he hadn’t. I told her of my 
having been there the previous day and of having 
paid him the money, and she looked at me in 


CROOKED WORK 53 

surprise and said she didn’t know a thing about 
it. Then-” 

Just at that moment Mrs. Sterling came in, 
and behind her was the tall form of Dr. Ellis. 

“Time’s up, boys,” the physician said, with a 
genial smile. “This young patient of mine can’t 
have company very long at a time just at pres¬ 
ent. It will be all right though to drop in some 
other time, if Miss Berwick so desires.” 

“Indeed I do,” said the young girl, as the boys, 
in compliance with the doctor’s suggestion, arose 
to go. 

“And we surely will be glad to come,” re¬ 
sponded Bob for himself and his friend. “We 
are keen to hear the rest of that story.” 

They said good-bye and went downstairs and 
out into the street. 

“Why didn’t the doctor wait just five minutes 
more?” grumbled Joe. “He couldn’t have picked 
out a worse minute to butt in. I’m just crazy 
to know how the thing came out.” 

“So am I,” agreed Bob. “But I’ve heard 
enough already to feel sure that that fellow 
Cassey is a double-dyed crook. He simply saw 
that he had an inexperienced girl to deal with 
and he made the most of it.” 

“I’d like to punch his nose for him,” growled 
Joe savagely, making a swing in the air at an 
imaginary opponent. 


0 



54 THE radio boys* first wireless 

“Same here/’ agreed Bob, “but that wouldn’t 
get back her four thousand. To think of a man 
turning a trick like that at the expense of a young 
girl who had just lost her father! It doesn’t 
seem as though there could be such a mean fel¬ 
low in the world!” 

“Well, however it may seem, there is evidently 
one who is mean enough.” 


CHAPTER VI 


A PRACTICAL OBJECT LESSON 

The chums were joined outside the hotel by 
Herb and Jimmy, who had waited for them dur¬ 
ing their interview. To them they narrated 
what they had learned of Miss Berwick's story. 
Their friends shared their own indignation and 
were quite as keen as themselves to hear the end 
of the story. 

“What did you say the fellow’s name was?” 
asked Herb, as the quartette walked along Main 
Street. 

“Cassey, she said it was—Dan Cassey,” replied 
Bob. “Ever hear of any one by that name?” 

“It sounds rather familiar,” replied Herb, 
knitting his brows as he tried to remember. 
“Wait!” he said suddenly. “I’ve almost got it— 
Cassey! Cassey! Does the man stutter, do you 
know ?” 

“She didn’t say anything about that,” replied 
Joe. “Why do you ask that question?” 

“Because,” answered Herb, “I remember a 
55 


o 


' 56 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

man of that name a few weeks ago calling at 
dad’s store to get a bill of goods. The reason 
I remember was the way he stuttered when dad 
was making out the bill. He tried and tried to 
say something, and his eyes bulged out and his 
cheeks got all puffed and red while he was trying 
to get it out. Then he stopped and whistled, 
and that seemed to help him, for then he went 
right on’ talking, only stopping once in a while 
to whistle again and get a fresh start. I had to 
get out of the store to keep from bursting out 
laughing. I remember I felt rather sorry for 
the fellow at the time, but if he’s the fellow 
who’s trying to do Miss Berwick out of her 
money, nothing’s too bad for him.” 

“Suppose you ask your father what he knows 
about him,” suggested Bob eagerly. “He may 
know something that may prove of some help 
to the girl, either in getting her money back or 
putting the fellow in jail.” 

“I’ll do it,” agreed Herb. “By the way, fel¬ 
lows, I dropped into Dave Slocum’s place yes¬ 
terday afternoon and found out that he had a 
whole stock of material for making wireless tele¬ 
phone sets. Said a salesman from New York 
talked him into it, and he was wondering how 
he was going to get rid of them. Thought he’d 
been stocked up with more than he could sell, 
all through the salesman’s slick tongue. I told 


A PRACTICAL OBJECT LESSON 

him not to worry, that the boys would be standing 
in line before long and would clean him out of 
stock. He seemed to think I was kidding him, 
but he brightened up just the same.” 

“Dave’s got a pleasant surprise coming to 
him,” grinned Joe. “Just our bunch alone will 
make quite a hole in his stock.” 

“You bet,” agreed Bob, as, having reached his 
gate, he said good-bye to his mates and went in. 
“Don’t forget to ask your dad about that Cassey 
fellow,” he called out after Herb. 

That Herb did not forget was proved when 
he overtook his friends the next morning on the 
way to school. 

“I asked dad about Cassey,” were his first 
words, after greetings had been exchanged. “He 
said he thought very likely the man was the one 
you had in mind, for this stuttering fellow came 
from Elwood and his first name was Daniel. It’s 
hardly likely there’d be two men of the same 
name in that little town.” 

“Did your father know anything about what 
kind of fellow he was?” asked Joe. 

“Dad said that he had the reputation of being 
tricky and hard-fisted,” answered Herb. “But 
as far as he knew he hadn’t been caught in any¬ 
thing yet that could put him in jail. He went 
up in the air when I told him about Miss Ber¬ 
wick, and said he’d like to get hold of the fellow 


58 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 


and break his neck. He thinks Miss Berwick 
ought to get a good lawyer and bring the rascal 
into court. But at the same time he thinks she 
may have a hard time proving her case, as she 
hasn’t any receipt or any witnesses. She could 
simply say she’d paid him and he could say she 
hadn’t. All he’d have to do would be to stand 
pat and put it up to her to prove her case. And 
how is she going to do it?” 

“Do you mean to say that he could get away 
with a thing as raw as that?” asked Joe, in a 
white heat. 

“He might,” declared Bob. “Things just as 
rank have been pulled off again and again. But 
at any rate she ought to get after him right away. 
She’s a dead loser as things stand, and if she can 
only get the rascal in court she may have a chance. 
Perhaps he hasn’t covered his trail as well as he 
thinks he has, and when a good lawyer gets to 
questioning him the truth may come out. In any 
case it’s the only way that will give her a ghost 
of a chance.” 

The days passed by swiftly until Saturday 
came and with it the opportunity the boys had 
looked forward to of going to Dr. Dale’s work¬ 
shop and getting a few practical points on the 
making of a wireless telephone set. 

They found the doctor at a bench that he had 


A PRACTICAL OBJECT LESSON 


59 


rigged up in his bam. On the wall was ar¬ 
ranged a large variety of tools and on the bench 
were strewn several coils of wire and a number 
of objects the name and use of which the boys 
did not know. 

The doctor, who was in his shirt sleeves, ex¬ 
tended a hearty welcome to the boys, who ranged 
themselves about him, and whose numbers were 
constantly augmented by newcomers until the 
bam was well filled. 

“What I want to do to-day, boys,” he said, 
“is to show you how easy and simple it is to put 
up a wireless telephone receiving set without hav¬ 
ing to spend very much money. 

“Now the first thing you have to get and put 
up is the aerial,” he remarked, as he unwound a 
large coil of copper wire. “You want about a 
hundred or a hundred and twenty feet of that. 
You can extend it horizontally for about fifty 
feet, say, for instance, from the side or back of 
your house to the bam or the garage, and then 
have it go up as high as it can go. The upper 
end doesn’t have to be in the outer air, for the 
sound will come along it if it’s in the attic. Still 
it’s better to have it outside if possible. The 
lower end of the wire has to be connected with 
the ground in some way, and you can fix that by 
attaching it to a water pipe or any other pipe 


60 THE RADIO BOYS 9 FIRST WIRELESS 


that runs into the ground. A good way is to let 
it down the side of the house and put it through 
the cellar window and fasten it to a pipe. 

“After you have your aerial you want to get 
the rest of the apparatus together. The first 
thing to do is to get a baseboard which will serve 
as the bottom of the receiving box. Something 
like this,” and he put his hand on a board about 
eighteen inches long, twelve inches wide, and 
about an inch thick. “This is the platform, as 
it were, on which the different parts of the ap¬ 
paratus are to rest. 

“Now since your ear alone can’t detect the 
waves that are coming to and along your aerial, 
you have to have a sort of electrical ear that will 
do this for you. Here it is,” and he picked up a 
piece of crystal and a wire of phosphor bronze. 
“When this wire comes in contact with this bit 
of crystal the mysterious waves become audible 
vibrations. 

“But this isn’t enough. You’ve got to get in 
tune with the sending station in order to under¬ 
stand the sounds you hear. When your vibration 
frequency is the same as that from which the 
message is sent, you ca-n hear as clearly as though 
the voice or instrument were in the next room. 
Now here’s a piece of a curtain pole that’s about 
a foot and a half long. You see that I’ve wound 
around its entire length, except for about a half 


A PRACTICAL OBJECT LESSON 


61 


inch at either end, a coil of wire. This is called 
the inductance coil. You will notice that the 
wire is covered with cotton except for this little 
strip of wire extending lengthwise where Tve 
scraped the cotton off with sandpaper so as to 
accommodate the sliding contacts. These sliding 
contacts can be made from curtain rings with 
holes punched in them, through which are passed 
copper rivets. These rivets press against the 
bare path of the coil and can be moved to and 
fro until you find the exact point where your set 
is in tune with the sending station.” 


CHAPTER VII 


IN THE DARK 

“Now,” continued Dr. Dale, as he glanced 
round the circle of eager faces, alight with in¬ 
terest in the subject, “we’re getting pretty close 
to the time when one picks up the receiver and 
begins to listen in. 

“But as the electric vibrations, if left alone, 
would have a good deal of trouble in passing 
through the telephone receiver, we must have a 
condenser to help them out. This is very easily 
made by gluing a piece of tinfoil about one and 
a half inches square to each side of a sheet of 
mica. Then you must have two strips of tinfoil, 
one extending from each side of the mica. If 
you haven’t any mica, a sheet of ordinary writ¬ 
ing paper will do, though the mica is better. 

“The telephone receiver you will have to buy, 
as a satisfactory one can’t very well be made by 
an amateur. The receiver ought to have a high 
resistance to get the best results. 

“There,” he said, as he laid the telephone re- 
62 


IN THE DARK 


63 

ceiver on the bench, “those are the essential 
things you have to have in order to make a set 
of your own. With these things only, it will 
of course be a simple set and have a limited 
range. There are a hundred improvements of 
one kind or another that you’ll learn about as 
you get more expert, and these can be added from 
time to time. But the special thing I wanted to 
prove to you to-day was that it would take only 
a very small expenditure of money to get this 
material together. You see how many things 
I’ve used that any one of you can find about the 
house, such as tinfoil, curtain poles, curtain rings, 
wood for the box, and so on. The wire needed 
for your tuning coil and your aerial can be ob¬ 
tained for less than a dollar. The detector, in¬ 
cluding the crystal, can be got for another dollar. 
An excellent receiver can be bought for two dol¬ 
lars. A few minor things will be needed at per¬ 
haps five or ten cents each. Altogether the cost 
of the set can be brought within five dollars.” 

This was good news to the boys, many of 
whom began at once a mental calculation as to 
the amount of their pocket money, while others 
began to figure on odd jobs that might bring them 
in the required amount, in the event that their 
parents would not supply the money. 

With a few deft movements the doctor at¬ 
tached the various parts of the apparatus to their 


64 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


proper places on the baseboard. There was not 
time that day to put up the aerial, but he gave 
them practical illustrations of how to use the de¬ 
tector by pressing the point of the wire firmly 
against the crystal, how to slide the rings back 
and forth until they found the point of greatest 
loudness and clearness, and all other points essen¬ 
tial to using the set successfully. Not all the 
boys caught on to all that was involved, but to 
the majority it was made reasonably clear. To 
Bob and Joe, who had followed every point of 
the demonstration with the keenest attention, the 
operation of the receiving set was made as clear 
as crystal, and they had no doubt of their abil¬ 
ity to construct a set for themselves. Herb’s 
attention had wandered somewhat, because in the 
back of his mind there still lurked the idea of 
buying a set ready made. Jimmy had been some¬ 
what distracted by looking about in various parts 
of the bam to see if he could detect the presence 
of any “eats,” and his ideas were somewhat hazy 
in consequence. 

“Well, boys,” at last said the doctor, with a 
smile, “I guess we’ll call it a day. But remem¬ 
ber that if at any time you are puzzled and want 
more information all you have to do is to come 
and ask me. I’ll gladly lay aside my work any 
time to help you youngsters out.” 

The boys thoroughly appreciated the doctor’s 


IN THE DARK 


65 


cordiality and the demonstration that he had 
given them, and most of them took occasion to 
tell him so as they said good-bye to him and filed 
out of the extemporized workshop. 

“He certainly does make things clear,” said 
Bob enthusiastically, as he and his friends made 
their way toward their homes. 

“Not only that, but he makes you want to do 
them,” said Joe. “After seeing and hearing him 
this afternoon, I’d ten times rather make a set 
than buy one.” 

Jimmy agreed with them, and even Herb 
seemed ready to reconsider the idea of getting 
one ready made, though he was not yet quite 
prepared to surrender. 

“All of you come over to my house to-night,” 
said Bob, as they neared their homes. “We 
haven’t got the materials yet, but we can go over 
again what the doctor told us to-day and make 
sure that we’ve got it all straight in our minds. 
[What one forgets, the other may remember. 
Then when we do get the stuff we can put a 
little snap and speed into making the set.” 

“That will be bully,” replied Joe, and the 
others agreed with him. “For my part,” Joe 
continued, “I count every day lost that we have 
to go without it. I sure am becoming a radio 
fan.” 

It turned out that Herb was prevented frorr} 


66 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

coming by unexpected company but the others 
were there. Their talk that night was animated 
and enthusiastic, so much so in fact that the time 
passed more quickly than they imagined, and they 
were surprised when the clock struck eleven. 

“By the way,” said Jimmy, as he was prepar¬ 
ing to leave with the rest, “I had a run in with 
Buck Looker when I was coming here to-night, 
and he said he was going to lay for me and do 
me up.” 

“He did, did he ?” asked Bob. “What was he 
sore about?” 

“Oh, he’s had a grouch ever since the day of 
the fire,” replied Jimmy. “You remember that 
when he spoke of the work he’d been doing to 
help put out the fire, I spoke up and said that he 
hadn’t done a thing. He’s had it in for me ever 
since. He bumped against me on purpose to¬ 
night just as I was coming in the gate, and when 
I called him down for it he said he was going to 
lay for me and change my face.” 

“The big bully!” exclaimed Bob. “Just wait 
here a minute while I go into the next room.” 

The adjoining room was dark and commanded 
a view of the street in front, while Bob himself 
could look out of the window without being seen. 
Some large shade trees were on the other side 
of the street, and as Bob’s eyes became accus¬ 
tomed to the darkness, he could dimly descry three 


JN THE DARK 


67 

forms lurking in the shadows. One of them he 
felt sure was Buck, and he felt reasonably certain 
that the others were Carl Lutz and Terrence 
Mooney, Buck's boon companions. 

“I guess Buck and his gang are hanging around 
all right," he announced, as he returned to the 
other room and reported his discovery. “But 
he's going to get a little surprise party. I tell 
you what we'll do. You go out of the front door 
alone, Jimmy. Joe and I will stand there in the 
light from the hall lamp and say good-night. 
Then we'll close the door, and you stand on the 
stoop a minute, buttoning your coat, and then go 
slowly down the walk. That will give Joe and 
me a chance to slip around through the back in 
the darkness and get behind the bushes near the 
gate. Leave the rest to us." 

“And what we’ll do will be a plenty," added 
Joe. 

Jimmy thought well of this plan, and agreed to 
do his part. 

They followed out this program to the letter. 
As Jimmy came down the walk, the lurking fig¬ 
ures across the street came out from the shadow 
of the trees and over toward him. 

“I've got you now, Jimmy Plummer," snarled 
the voice of Buck Looker. “I told you I was 
going to take some of the freshness out of you, 
and now I’m going to tan your hide." 


68 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

“Does it take three of you to do it?” asked 
Jimmy. 

“None of your lip now,” growled Buck, as he 
clenched his fist. “I'm going to have the fun of 
doing it myself.” 

With one spring Bob vaulted over the low 
fence. 

“You've got another guess coming, Buck 
Looker,” he said coolly. 

The bully started back in surprise and con¬ 
sternation, which was not diminished when Joe 
followed his friend's example and stood at his 
side. 

“What are you butting in for?” Buck snapped, 
as soon as he recovered his breath. 

“Because I choose to,” answered Bob. “Be¬ 
cause I won't stand by and see you hit a fellow 
half your size. If it's fighting you're looking 
for, I’ll give you all the fighting you want right 
here and now. If your gang want to mix in, 
Joe will take care of Lutz and Jimmy can look 
after Mooney. But I’ll take you on myself. 
How about it? Is it a go?” 

He advanced on Buck, and before his flashing 
eyes those of the bully wavered and fell. 

“I—I'll settle with you some other time,” he 
stammered, retreating toward the middle of the 
street. 

“No time like the present,” challenged Bob, 


IN THE DARK 


69 


but as Buck, muttering threats, still continued to 
retreat, while his cronies slunk away with him, 
Bob gave a little laugh and came back to his 
friends. 

“All right, Jimmy,” he chuckled. “I guess 
your face won’t be changed to-night. Buck 
seems to have changed his mind.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


GETTING A START 

The idea of having their own radio outfit and 
being able to hear all the wonderful things going 
on in the air about them so fascinated the boys 
that they could talk or think of little else. Even 
Jimmy Plummer became so excited that his 
mother declared he was actually forgetting to 
eat, a statement that his father flatly refused to 
believe at first, until he escorted his rotund son 
to the nearest scale and discovered the astonish¬ 
ing fact that he had really lost two pounds. 

“You see how it is, Dad,” said Jimmy, mourn¬ 
fully. “If you don’t give me the money to get 
some wireless stuff I’ll just pine away and die.” 

“It wouldn’t hurt you to pine away about 
twenty pounds, anyway,” said his father, with a 
twinkle in his eye. “But I suppose if you’ve set 
your heart on it I might as well come across now 
as later and save myself from being pestered to 
death. How much do you suppose you’ll need 
to get started ?” 


70 


GETTING A START 


7 1 


“The other fellows are figuring that about five 
dollars apiece will buy most of the things we’ll 
need—at first, anyway,” he added, with a careful 
eye to the future. 

“All right, here it is,” said Mr. Plummer. 
“And I suppose the next thing we know you’ll 
be breaking your neck falling off the roof while 
you’re trying to put up aerials, or whatever it is 
they call the contraptions.” 

“Leave that to me,” said Jimmy. “And I’ll 
bet you’ll get lots of fun out of this too, Dad, 
when we get it going.” 

“Well, maybe so,” said his father. “But I 
don’t take much stock in the whole business. 
Some wonderful things happen these days, 
though, and you may be able to change my mind.” 

“I’m sure I will,” said Jimmy, with convic¬ 
tion. “And if you had heard what I did at Doc¬ 
tor Dale’s house, I’ll bet you’d want a radio outfit 
as much as I do.” 

“Well, go ahead and see what you can do, 
Son. If you can really get the thing working, 
so much the better.” 

The next day Jimmy lost no time in hunting 
up his friends and telling them of his good for¬ 
tune. He found that the others had not been far 
behind him in procuring the necessary cash. 
That afternoon they all descended on the hard¬ 
ware store, whose proprietor had laid in a stock 


72' THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

of the materials that would be likely to be needed 
in the construction of simple radio outfits. The 
hardware merchant was glad to see them, but 
somewhat surprised also. 

“Gosh!” he exclaimed, when he learned what 
the boys had come for. “When that salesman 
from New York talked me into stocking up with 
all that stuff, I never thought I’d get a sale for 
it in the next ten years. And now here's all you 
youngsters coming in here after it with money in 
your fists." 

“Yes, and you'd better lay in a whole lot more 
of it, Dave," said Bob Layton. “It won't be long 
before everybody in this town will be wanting a 
wireless radio outfit." 

“Well, I guess I've got enough in the store 
now to start you fellows on your yray," said Dave 
Slocum, the proprietor. “'Now, what all do you 
need ?" 

There followed a time of much consultation 
and anxious questioning before all the enthusias¬ 
tic young experimenters were satisfied that they 
were getting the most useful things their limited 
amount of capital would buy. Dave Slocum sold 
more feet of copper wire in that one afternoon 
than he had in the previous five years, not to 
mention insulators, resistance wire, detectors, 
head sets, and all the other paraphernalia neces¬ 
sary to the beginner. At last all the various pur- 


GETTING A START 


73 

chases were tied into neat bundles, and the ex¬ 
cited boys swarmed out into the street. 

“Let’s go to my house and get started right 
away,” proposed Bob. “It will be quite a job to 
get the aerial strung, and the sooner we do it 
the better* it will suit me.” 

The others were of the same mind, and they 
made the distance to the Layton home “on the 
jump” with Jimmy puffing valiantly in the rear 
in a desperate endeavor to keep up with his more 
active comrades. 

“Gee!” he exclaimed, staggering up the steps 
to the cool veranda, “you fellows must think I’m 
a candidate for Marathon runner at the next 
Olympic games, the way you hit it up coming 
here.” 

“I don’t know about the Marathon race,” said 
Joe, “but I do think we could enter you in the 
long distance pie-eating contest, without having 
any doubts of your winning away out in front 
of the field.” 

“Well, I don’t want to boast, but I think I 
could do myself proud,” admitted Jimmy. “I 
don’t think I ever really got enough pie to satisfy 
me yet.” 

“Never mind about pies now,” said Herb. 
“The question before the house is to get an aerial 
strung from Bob’s house to the barn. What’s 
the best way to get up on the roof, Bob?” 




74 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

There s a trap door in the roof not far from 
the chimney,” replied Bob. “I was thinking that 
we could make a mast and lash it to the chimney. 
That would give us one secure anchorage for the 
aerial, and the other we can fasten to the roof 
of the barn easily enough.” 

“What are we going to make the mast out of ?” 
inquired Joe. 

“There's a nice piece of four by four lumber 
out in the barn, replied Bob. <f I was thinking 
that we could leave it square at the bottom and 
plane it off round at the top, so as to look better. 
I don’t see why that won’t fill the bill all right.” 

“Sounds all right,” said Herb, and, with Bob 
leading, all four boys piled out to the big bam 
back of the house. Bob produced his scantling 
and hunted up a big plane. Then the boys set 
to with a will, and in a short time had the rough 
timber nicely smoothed off, with a slight taper 
toward the top. Then they screwed in a large 
hook, bought for the purpose, and after providing 
themselves with a generous length of rope, re¬ 
paired to the roof of the house. 

As Bob had told them, there was a large scuttle 
leading from the attic onto the roof, and one 
after another they clambered out through this. 
The roof sloped gently at this point, and while 
they found it necessary to be careful, they had 


GETTING A START 


75 


little difficulty in reaching the chimney. Before 
erecting the mast they fastened one end of the 
aerial over the hook in it. The aerial consisted 
of a single, number fourteen, hard drawn copper 
wire, insulated at each end by an earthenware 
insulator having two hooks embedded in it. One 
of these hooks went over the hook in the mast, 
while the other had the end of the wire attached 
to it. A similar insulator was provided at the 
other end of the wire, thus preventing its becom¬ 
ing grounded to the house or barn. 

Having hooked up one end of their aerial, the 
boys erected the mast against the chimney, and 
lashed it firmly in position with the rope they 
had brought up. 

“There!” exclaimed Bob, when everything was 
fixed to his liking, “that mast looks as though it 
might stay put a while. Now let’s rig up one on 
the barn, and we’ll have the first part of our job 
done, anyway.” 

Clambering back to the scuttle, the boys 
dropped through to the attic floor and hurried 
downstairs. It was beginning to get dark, and 
as they wanted to get the aerial up while day¬ 
light lasted, everything went with a rush. Poor 
Jimmy thought more than once of his father’s 
prophecy that he would lose weight in such stren¬ 
uous activities, but he was as anxious to receive 


76 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

the first radio signals as any of the others, so he 
followed the headlong pace the others set without 
a murmur. 

Of course there was no convenient chimney 
on the barn to act as a support for the mast, but 
they finally rigged up a mast at one end of the 
barn, nailing it securely to the siding boards. 
Then they drew the copper.wire through the hook 
in the insulator until there was just a little slack, 
cut off the wire, and wound it securely. Then 
they all gazed with pride at their handiwork, and 
had the comfortable feeling that comes of work 
well done. 

“Hooray!” shouted Jimmy. “That's what I 
call a good job, and it didn't take us such a long 
time, either.” 

“Yes, but that's only the beginning,” said Joe. 
“I only wish we had more time to-night. I feel 
as though I'd like to keep right on now and not 
stop until we ; re actually receiving.” 

“You'd be pretty hungry if you tried to do 
it,” remarked Jimmy. “To hear you talk, you'd 
think making a receiving set was about as hard 
as taking a run around the block.” 

“It isn't much harder than for you to take a 
run around the block,” laughed Herb. “You 
were puffing like a steam engine while we were 
coming up from the store this afternoon. If you 
don't cut down on the eats, Doughnuts, you’ll 


GETTING A START 


77 

Have to get around in a wheel chair. You won’t 
even be able to walk, let alone run.” 

“There you go,” complained Jimmy, in an ag¬ 
grieved tone. “Just because I’m not as skinny 
as you fellows, you think that I eat more than 
you do. Nobody could eat more than you do, 
Herb, and live to tell the story.” 

“I don’t have to tell any stories along that line,” 
retorted Herb, with a laugh. “My friends do 
that for me.” 

“I’ll bet they do,” grumbled Jimmy. “I get 
some result out of what I eat, anyway, and that’s 
more than you can say.” 

“Oh, I can say it, all right, but probably no¬ 
body would believe me,” admitted Herb. 

“Right you are, Herb', old boy!” 

“When you two fellows are all through argu¬ 
ing, maybe we can go up and hook on our lead¬ 
ing-in- wire to the aerial,” said Joe, impatiently. 
“We ought to get that much done before dark, 
anyway.” 

“I don’t know about that, Joe,” objected Bob. 
“It’s almost dark now, and we could do it better 
and easier in the daylight. What do you say if 
you all come around after supper and we’ll dope 
out a wiring diagram' and maybe make a start 
on building the tuning coil.” 

Joe reluctantly consented to this, and the four 
companions separated for the time being, after 


78 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


promising to return to Bob’s house that evening. 
And true to their promise, the boys had all re¬ 
turned to the Layton home by eight o’clock that 
evening, full of enthusiasm for the task that lay 
before them. Mr. Layton was mildly interested 
in the radiophone project, but after^a few ques¬ 
tions he retired to the library with the evening 
paper, leaving the boys to theirown devices. 


CHAPTER IX 


WORK AND FUN 

“Well, fellows,” said Bob, “here we are, all 
set for a busy evening. What shall we do first ?” 

“What Fd suggest,” said Jimmy, “would be 
for everybody to have a little milk chocolate, just 
to start things off right,” and he produced a huge 
bar of that toothsome confection and passed it 
around, with an earnest invitation to everybody 
to “help himself.” 

“It isn’t such a bad idea, at that,” admitted 
Bob, breaking off a chunk that made Jimmy gasp. 
The others imitated his example, and by the time 
the bar of chocolate got back to Jimmy it had 
shrunken so greatly that the last named individ¬ 
ual gazed at it mournfully. 

“Gee whillikins!” he exclaimed, “you fellows 
certainly do like chocolate, though, don’t you?” 

“I do, anyway,” said Herb, laughing at the 
rueful expression on his friend’s face. “Have 
you got any more when that’s gone, Doughnuts ?” 

“No, I haven’t. But if I had you can bet I’d 
79 


go THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

hold on to it,” said Jimmy. “How do you ex¬ 
pect me to work if I don’t have anything to keep 
my strength up?” 

“Who said we expected you to work?” de¬ 
manded Joe. “I’m sure we wouldn’t be so fool¬ 
ish, would we, fellows?” 

“Oh, I don’t know,” retorted Jimmy. “You’re 
foolish enough for anything else, so why not 
that?” 

“Well, if you say so, I suppose that settles it,” 
said Joe. “But, anyway, as long as Jimmy was 
so careless as not to bring more candy along, I 
suppose we’d better get to work.” 

“Shall we get the tuning coil started?” sug¬ 
gested Bob. “It will take us quite some time 
to do that, but we might get the core wound to¬ 
night, anyway.” 

As there was no objection to this, they all went 
down to the cellar, where Bob had rigged up a 
work bench and had a pretty complete stock of 
tools. Jimmy’s father had made them a wooden 
form on which to wind the wire. This core was 
nothing but a plain cylinder of wood, about three 
inches in diameter and ten inches long. For 
Christmas, the year before, Mr. Layton had given 
Bob a small but accurately made bench lathe, 
operated by a foot pedal, and Bob mounted the 
roller between the lathe centers, holding one end 
in the chuck jaws. Then he produced a narrow 


WORK AND FUN 


81 


roll of stout wrapping paper, such as is used for 
winding around automobile tires, and a bottle of 
shellac, together with a small, fine-haired brush. 

“First thing,” he said, “we want to wind a 
few layers of shellacked paper on this core. Sup¬ 
pose I turn the core, you let the paper unwind 
onto it, Joe, and you can shellac the paper as it 
unrolls, Herb.” 

“That leaves me with nothing to do but boss 
the job,” said Jimmy, “and I don’t see why I 
can’t do that as well lying down as standing up, 
so here goes,” and he stretched out luxuriously 
on an old sofa. “This must have been put here 
just for me, I guess,” he continued, with a sigh 
of perfect contentment. “Get busy, you laborers, 
and flash & little speed.” 

“We haven’t got time to come and throw you 
off that sofa just now,” said Bob. “But as soon 
as we get through with this job you’ll vacate 
pretty quick. Are you fellows ready to start 
now ?” 

“I’ve been ready for the last half hour,” said 
Joe. “Start that jigger of yours going, and let’s 
see what happens.” 

Bob put a dab of shellac on one end of the 
paper to get it started, stuck the end on the 
wooden core, and then started winding the paper 
onto it at a slow speed. Joe moved the roll of 
paper back and forth to wind it smoothly and 


82 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


evenly, while Herb shellacked for all he was 
worth, giving himself almost as liberal a dose of 
the sticky gum as he gave the paper. It was not 
long before the core was neatly wrapped, and Bob 
stopped his lathe. 

“That looks fine,” he said, eyeing the job crit¬ 
ically. “Now, while that shellac is drying out a 
bit, let’s see if we can’t coax Doughnuts to get 
up off that couch.” 

All three boys made a dive for their luckless 
companion, but he was up and off before they 
could reach him, with a nimbleness that would 
not have disgraced a jack rabbit. 

“No, you don’t!” he exclaimed. “I beat you 
to it. I suppose it makes you feel jealous to 
see me resting once in a while, instead of slaving 
my head off as usual. If you Indians had your 
way I’d be worn to a shadow in no time.” 

“It’s easy to see we don’t have our way much, 
then,” laughed Herb. “You’ve got a long way 
to go before you get in the shadow class, Jim.” 

“It can’t be too far to suit me,” responded that 
youth. “But what I want to know is, is that 
tuning coil wound yet? Seems to me you take a 
lot of time to do a simple thing like that.” 

“You’d better sing small, or first thing you 
know you’ll find yourself in the coal bin,” threat¬ 
ened Joe. “How about throwing him in just for 
luck, fellows?” 


WORK AND FUN 


83 

‘‘You’ve got a funny idea of what luck is,” 
said Jimmy. “1 never did care much for coal 
bins. Thank you just the same.” 

“You’re welcome,” retorted Joe. Then to 
Bob: “Do you think we can wind the wire on 
now, Bob?” 

“Why, I guess so,” said Bob, testing the shellac 
with his finger. “It’s getting pretty tacky now; 
so if we wind the wire on right away the shellac 
will help to hold it in place when it dries.” 

“Well, start up the old coffee mill, then,” said 
Herb. “If we can get the wire on as slick as we 
did the paper, it won’t be half bad.” 

But the wire was a more difficult thing to work, 
as they soon found. It required the greatest care 
to get the'wire to lie smooth and close without 
any space between coils. More than once they 
had to unwind several coils and rewind them be¬ 
fore they finally got the whole core wound in a 
satisfactory manner. But at last it was finished, 
all coils wound smooth and close, and the boys 
gazed at it with pardonable pride. 

“That doesn’t look as bad as it might, does 
it?” said Bob. 

“I should say not!” exclaimed Joe. “The last 
time I was in New York I saw a coil like that 
in an electrical store window. I didn’t know 
then what it was for, but as far as I can remem¬ 
ber, it didn’t look much better than this one.” 


84 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

“We probably couldn’t have made as good a 
job of it if Bob hadn’t had that lathe,” said Herb. 

“Well, I don’t know,” said Bob. “It would 
have taken us longer, but I think we could have 
done it about as well in the end. Now that we’ve 
got the core wound, we’ll have to mount it with 
a couple of sliding contacts, ’but I guess we’d bet¬ 
ter not try to do anything more to-night. It’s 
getting pretty late. And, besides, mother said 
she’d leave an apple pie and some milk in the 
ice box, and I’m beginning to feel as though that 
would taste pretty good.” 


CHAPTER X 


A STEALTHY RASCAL 

“Did you really say pie, Bob?” asked Jimmy 
in a rapturous voice. “And apple pie at that? 
Or was it all only a beautiful dream ?” 

“There’s only one way to find out, and that’s 
to go and see,” said Bob. “Last man up gets the 
smallest piece,” and he made a dash for the stairs, 
closely followed by the others. Poor Jimmy, in 
spite of a surprising burst of speed on his part, 
was the last one up, and arrived out of breath, 
but ready to argue against Bob’s dictum. 

“Don’t you know that if there’s a small piece 
it’s up to the host to take it ?” he asked Bob, who 
by that time had secured the pie and was cutting 
it. “If you were really polite you wouldn’t eat 
any of that pie at all. You’d give all your time 
to seeing that we had plenty.” 

“Yes, but I’m not that polite,” said Bob. “I 
think I deserve credit for not waiting till you had 
all gone home and then eating the whole thing 
85 


86 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

myself. That’s probably what you’d do, Dough¬ 
nuts, if you were in my place.” 

“I wouldn’t either,” disclaimed Jimmy in¬ 
dignantly. 

“Of course he wouldn’t eat it after we’d gone,” 
grinned Herb. “And if you coax me real hard, 
I’ll tell you why.” 

“All right, I’ll bite,” said Joe. “Why wouldn’t 
Doughnuts eat the pie after we’d gone home?” 

“Because he would have eaten it all before we 
even got here,” replied Herb, with a shout of 
laughter. “Ask me a harder one next time.” 

“I suppose you think that’s real smart, don’t 
you?” remarked Jimmy sarcastically. “But I 
don’t care what you say, as long as there is pie 
like this in the world,” and he bit off a huge 
mouthful with an expression of perfect ecstasy 
on his round countenance. 

“It is pretty easy to take,” admitted Herb, as 
he proceeded to dispose of his share in a work¬ 
manlike manner. “This is regular angel’s food, 
Bob.” 

“Yes, it was made especially for me,” said Bob, 
trying to look like an angel, but falling consid¬ 
erably short of the mark. It is hard for any 
one to look very angelic with a big piece of 
apple pie in one hand and a glass of milk in the 
other. 

“Suppose you cut out the angel business and 


A STEALTHY RASCAL 


87 

hand me over another piece of that pie,” sug¬ 
gested Jimmy. “If you’re an angel, Bob, I hope 
to die a horrible death from slow starvation, and 
I can’t say any more than that, can I ?” 

“You’d better speak nicely to me, or you won’t 
get another piece,” threatened Bob, holding a 
wedge of pie temptingly in Jimmy’s direction. 
“Am I an angel, Doughnuts, or not? Yes—pie. 
No—no pie.” 

“Of course you are, Bob, and you know I al¬ 
ways loved you.” Bob passed him the pie, and 
Jimmy clutched it securely. 

“Thanks, you big hobo,” he grinned. 

“There’s gratitude for you,” said Bob, appeal¬ 
ing to the others. “He knows the pie is all gone 
now, so he thinks he can insult me and get away 
with it.” 

“So I can,” said Jimmy complacently. “You 
know you could never get along without my ad¬ 
vice and help, Bob. You need somebody around 
you with brains, to make up for Joe and Herb.” 

“That pie must have gone to your head,” said 
Joe. “We’d better try to get him home where 
they can take care of him, Herb. He’ll probably 
be telling us he’s Napoleon, if we let him get a 
little crazier.” 

“I’m going right away, anyway,” said Jimmy, 
hunting back of the door for his cap. “I worked 
so hard making that tuning coil that I’m all in. 


88 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

Til need 1 a good night’s sleep t.o set me on my 
feet again. So long, fellows,” and he went away 
whistling. 

The others followed soon after, after agreeing 
to meet the next afternoon to mount the tuning 
coil. 

As Bob and Joe were on their way home from 
school the following day they caught sight of 
Miss Berwick sitting on the porch of the hotel, 
enjoying the bright spring sunshine. She nodded 
to them brightly and invited them to come up 
on the porch. They were quick to accept the in¬ 
vitation, and as they dropped into seats beside 
her they were glad to note that there was more 
color in her cheeks than when they had seen her 
last. 

“'No need of asking whether you are feeling 
better,” remarked Bob. “One can tell that by 
just looking at you.” 

“Oh yes,” replied Miss Berwick with a smile. 
“I’ll soon be as well as ever, thanks to the good 
doctoring and nursing I’ve had.” 

“It was too 1 bad that the doctor came in just 
when he did the other day,” said Joe. “We were 
keen to hear the rest of your story about that fel¬ 
low Cassey. Has anything turned up to tell you 
where he is and what he is doing?” 

“Not a thing,” replied the girl, with a tinge of 
sadness in her tone. “From the moment I paid 


A STEALTHY RASCAL 


89 


him that money, I've never laid eyes on him. For 
some days after he was said to have left for Chi¬ 
cago, I haunted his office, hoping that with every 
mail there might be a letter either to me or his 
stenographer explaining the matter and setting it 
right. I tried to get his Chicago address, but 
his stenographer said she didn't know it, and I 
think it likely enough she was telling the truth. 
I've looked through the records here to see if 
he had transferred the mortgage, but it still 
stands in his name, as far as the records go. I 
have clung to the hope that possibly he had writ¬ 
ten to me and that the letter had gone astray. 
But I guess I’m just fooling myself. I'm going 
to put the whole thing in the hands of a lawyer 
and have Cassey brought to justice if I can. But 
I’m afraid it’ll be a case of locking the stable 
door after the horse is stolen." 

“Don't get downhearted," urged Bob. “I 
have an idea that you’ll get your money or the 
mortgage. Slicker rascals than he have been 
caught, no matter how carefully they covered 
their tracks. There’s usually one little thing 
they've forgotten that leads to their getting 
nabbed at last.” 

“Let’s hope so,” replied Miss Berwick, but none 
too confidently. “But now tell me something 
about yourselves. It isn't fair that my troubles 
should take up all the conversation." 


90 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

The boys told her of their radio experiments, 
and she listened with the keenest interest. 

'That reminds me,” she said. “I noticed a 
radio telephone set in this man Cassey’s office. 
His stenographer told me that that was his one 
recreation.” 

“You find them everywhere,” replied Bob. 
“They’ll soon be a feature in almost every home 
and business office. But we’ll have to go now,” 
he said, as he rose to his feet, while Joe followed 
his example. “Good afternoon. And don’t for¬ 
get what I said. I feel you’ll get your money or 
you’ll get your mortgage.’’ 


CHAPTER XI 


CLEVER THINKING 

The radio boys were at Bob’s house on the dot, 
all but Jimmy, who to his great disgust had to do 
some work for his father, and so could not come. 

“I suppose we’ll have to try to get along some¬ 
way without his valuable assistance,” said Herb. 
“When he told me he couldn’t get here this aft¬ 
ernoon he certainly felt sore about it.” 

“I guess I know how he feels, all right,” said 
Joe. “It would pretty near break his heart not 
to be able to work on this radio stuff now. I’m 
crazy for the time to come when we can pick our 
first message or music out of the air.” 

“I guess you’re no more anxious for that to 
happen than we are,” said Bob. “Let’s go down¬ 
stairs and see what we can do.” 

They all made their way to Bob’s workroom 
in the basement, where they found the core well 
dried and the wire as firmly set on it as the most 
particular workman could desire. 

“Good enough!” exclaimed Bob, examining the 
91 


92 THE RADIO BOYS 3 FIRST WIRELESS 

core with, loving pride. “We’ll get this set up 
in a jiffy, and then we can make the condenser/' 

Working together, the boys soon had two 
square blocks sawn out as end pieces, and they 
centered the core on these and screwed it fast. 
Then they drilled holes in the two upper comers 
of the square end pieces to fit two brass rods 
they had bought at the hardware store. These 
rods carried each a small sliding spring, or con¬ 
tact, which rubbed along the length of the tuning 
coil, one on each side. After they had bolted the 
brass rods securely in place, the coil was ready 
for use, except that the boys had first to scrape 
off the insulating enamel in the path of the slid¬ 
ing contacts, so that they could reach the copper 
coils. A sharp pen knife soon effected this, and 
the boys found themselves possessed of a neat, 
substantial tuning coil, at a cost of only a frac¬ 
tion of what it would have been if they had had 
to buy a coil already made. And in addition they 
had the satisfaction that comes of a good job 
well done, which more than compensated them 
for the labor involved. 

“That begins to look like business,” exulted 
Joe. “We’ll be putting Mr. Edison out of busi¬ 
ness pretty soon.” 

“Yes, it’s lucky he can’t see that tuning coil,” 
laughed Bob, “he’d be looking up the want ads 
in the papers, sure.” 


CLEVER THINKING 


93 

“Oh, that coil won’t be a patch on the con¬ 
denser we’re going to make,” declared Herb. 

“I know we’ve got to have a condenser, but 
I’m blessed if I really understand what it is for,” 
said Joe. “I know the doctor told us about it, 
but I guess I didn’t get a very clear idea of what 
it was all about.” 

“I’m not very clear on it either,” admitted Bob, 
“But from what he said and what I’ve read, it 
seems to be a sort of equalizer, for the electric 
current, storing it up when it’s strong and giving 
it out when it’s weak. It prevents the current 
getting too strong at times and burning some¬ 
thing out.” 

“That’s the way I understood it, too,” said 
Herb. “And Dr. Dale said that in the larger 
sets they have what they call a variable condenser, 
so that they can get more or less damping action 
according to the strength of the incoming current 
waves,” 

“I guess I get the idea,” said Joe. “But it’s 
a pretty complicated thing when you first tackle 
it, isn’t it?” 

“Yes, but it’s just like almost anything else, 
probably—it’s easy when you know how,” said 
Bob. 

“It tells here how to make the condenser,” said 
Herb, who had been looking over an instruction 
book that the boys had bought. “But it says the 


94 the RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

best thing to use for the plates is tinfoil. Now, 
where are we going to get the tinfoil from, I’d 
like to know!” 

“If you want to know real badly, I’ll tell you,” 
said Bob. “Right out of that box over in the 
corner. Just wait a minute and I’ll show you.” 

Bob stepped swiftly over to the box in ques¬ 
tion and produced a big ball of tinfoil, composed 
of separate sheets tightly packed together. 

“When I was a kid I used to collect this stuff 
and sell it to the junkman,” he said. “This ball 
never got big enough for that, and I forgot all 
about it until a few days ago when I happened 
to come across it and thought that it would be 
just the thing for us to use now. We can easily 
peel off all the sheets we need, I guess. Some 
of them are damaged, but there are enough whole 
ones to do our trick.” 

“Gee, that’s fine!” said Joe. “Pry off some, 
Bob, and let’s see if it will serve.” 

With his knife Bob pried away at likely looking 
places, and soon had several large sheets off. 
These, when smoothed out, looked good enough 
for any purpose. 

“How many does the book say we’ll need, 
Herb?” asked Bob, 

“It says eight or ten, each one about four 
inches square,” answered Herb. “And it says 
they have to be separated by paraffined paper. 


CLEVER THINKING 


95 


How are we going to get hold of some of that?’" 

“Paraffine wax is what they use to seal fruit 
jars,” said Joe. “We ought to be able to get 
some of that easy enough.” 

“Mother had a big cake of it last summer!” 
cried Bob. “Maybe she has some of it left. 
Wait here and I’ll ask her,” and he dashed up 
the stairs three steps at a time. 

In a few minutes he returned, having obtained 
not only the wax but a small sauce pan in which 
to melt it. 

“I thought I’d bring this along, so as to have 
it,” he said; “but it’s so near supper time that 
I don’t think we’ll have a chance to do much more 
—right now, anyway. What do you say if we 
knock off'now and do some more work this eve¬ 
ning after supper?” 

“Gee, I never thought it was that late,” said 
Herb. “If Jimmy had been here, I suppose he 
would have been talking about supper for the last 
hour or so, and we’d have known what time it 
was.” 

“Well, I’ll be here for one,” said Joe, “and I’ll 
stop at Jimmy’s house on the way home and tell 
him to get around, too.” 

“I’ll come too,” said Plerb. “And, Joe, while 
you’re about it, tell Jimmy to be sure and bring 
another chunk of chocolate, only bigger than the 
one he had last night.” 


96 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

‘Til be sure to mention that,” grinned Joe. 
“But I don’t think he’ll do it, just the same.” 

Bob went upstairs with them, and Herb and 
Joe went away together, after promising to come 
back as soon after supper as possible. After 
they had gone, Bob could not resist the tempta¬ 
tion to go down and gaze with an approving eye 
on the shiny new tuner they had made, and dream 
of the many wonderful sounds that would soon 
come drifting in through that gleaming bit of 
mechanism. 


CHAPTER XII 


FORGING AHEAD 

The Laytons had hardly finished supper that 
evening before Jimmy's cheery whistle was heard 
outside, and Bob jumped up to let him in. 

“Come in, old timer," Bob called to him. 
“Where’s the rest of the bunch ?” 

“Oh, I guess they’ll be along pretty soon,’’ said 
Jimmy. “I guess I’m a bit early, but I was so 
anxious to get around that I couldn’t wait to 
come at a respectable time. I suppose I should 
be boning down for to-morrow’s lessons, but I’d 
never be able to> get my mind on them until we 
get our outfit going.’’ 

“I feel the same way,’’ said Bob. “But at the 
rate we’re going now it won’t be very long.’’ 

“Joe told me you finished the tuning coil this 
afternoon,’’ said Jimmy. “I don’t understand 
how you ever did it without my being here to tell 
you how, though.’’ 

“Oh, we managed to patch it up some way,’’ 
laughed Bob. “Come on down and look at it, 
and see if it’s good enough to suit you.” 

97 


98 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

“Lead me to it,” said Jimmy, and the two boys 
went downstairs. 

“Say, that’s a pippin,” said Jimmy, as Bob 
switched on the light and he caught sight of the 
finished tuner. “I couldn’t have done it better 
myself. You’ve certainly made a first class job 
of it.” 

“We thought it wasn’t so bad,” admitted Bob 
modestly. “Especially when one stops to think 
that you weren’t here to give us the benefit of 
your advice.” 

“That’s the most surprising thing about it,” 
said Jimmy. “But now that I’m here to-night, 
why, we can go right ahead and get a lot done. 
Seems to 1 me it must be about time for Joe and 
Herb to show up.” 

As though in answer to this thought, they 
heard a tuneful duet, and a moment later came 
a vigorous ring on the doorbell. 

“You go up and let them in, will you, Dough¬ 
nuts?” said Bob. “I want to melt this paraffine 
and get things started right away.” 

“Sure I will!” And Jimmy hastened off, re¬ 
turning a few minutes later with the missing 
members of the quartette. 

“It’s about time you got here,” said Jimmy. 
“Bob and I were wondering if we’d have to do 
all the work by our lonesome, as usual.” 

“Gee, you don’t know what work means,” re- 


FORGING AHEAD 


99 


turned Joe scornfully. “Last evening you pretty 
near wore a hole in that old couch resting on it, 
and this afternoon you were enjoying yourself 
helping your father instead of coming here and 
doing a little honest work for a change.” 

“Oh, yes, I enjoyed myself a lot!” exclaimed 
Jimmy. “I sawed enough one inch planks this 
afternoon to make either one of you loafers cry 
for help! And then you talk about my having 
enjoyed myself!” 

“Well, if you worked so hard, maybe your dad 
gave you enough money for it to buy a respect¬ 
able piece of chocolate with instead of that measly 
little sample you brought around last night,” said 
Herb. 

“You’re right he did, and here it is,” said 
Jimmy. And from under his coat he produced 
an immense slab of delicious looking chocolate 
that must have weighed all of a pound. 

The shout that went up from his three friends 
might well have startled the family upstairs. 

“Jimmy, we’ve got to hand it to> you; you’re 
a good sport,” cried Bob, laughing. “I never 
really thought you’d ever bring any more, after 
the way we ate what you had last night.” 

“I’m glad that you admit that you ate more 
than your share,” said Jimmy, severely. “But I 
thought I’d bring enough around to-night, hoping 
there might be a little piece left over for me.” 


10Q THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

“l think that since he's so generous we ought 
to let him have a real big piece," said Joe. 

“Yes," grinned Herb. “But remember that 
chocolate candy is about the worst thing a fat 
person can eat. It might be better for Dough¬ 
nuts, after all, if we took this away from him 
right away. I'd rather get sick myself eating it 
than see him get any fatter." 

“Say, how do you get that way?” demanded 
Jimmy in an aggrieved tone. “I’ve never been 
able yet to get hold of enough candy to make me 
too fat, and if I should, I’m the one that ought 
to worry about it." 

“It looks to me as though there's enough there 
for all of us for a week," said Bob. “Let’s break 
it up and put it in this box over here, and then 
anybody who wants any can help himself." 

“That’s fair enough," said Jimmy. “But I’ll 
bet anything it won’t last this bunch any week. 
If you were all like me it might, but I suppose 
that’s too much to ask." 

“I don’t think that’s asking very much, do you, 
fellows?" said Joe, with an exasperating grin. 

“Wow!" exclaimed Herb, laughing. “That 
has all the appearance of a dirty dig, Joe. If I 
were you I wouldn’t let him have a scrap of that 
chocolate, Jimmy." 

“I suppose I shouldn’t. I ought to let hint 
chew on a piece of that paraffine that Bob’s melt- 


FORGING AHEAD 


IOI 


ing. He's so foolish sometimes that I don’t think 
he’d ever know the difference.” 

“Well, we can’t all of us be wise,” said Joe. 
“But I’ve got a hunch that I’d rather have the 
chocolate, so here goes,” and he helped himself 
to a generous piece. “When are you going to 
have that wax cooked good and tender, Bob?” 

“Suppose you leave the wax to me, and you 
get busy cutting out some squares of tinfoil and 
paper,” suggested Bob. “This wax will be done 
a long time before you’re ready for it.” 

“All right, I’ll do it,” said Joe. “I don’t sup¬ 
pose there’s anybody in the world can beat me 
at cutting out squares of paper. There may be 
some things I can’t do, but I sure shine at that.” 

“Yes, I guess you can do that all right,” ad¬ 
mitted Bob. “But I can’t be real sure until you 
give us a demonstration.” 

“Here goes, then,” replied Joe. “How big do 
they want to be ?” 

“Four inches square, the book says, and I sup¬ 
pose the man that wrote it knew what he was 
talking about,” said Bob. “That will do to start 
on, anyway.” 

Joe carefully measured a square of paper to 
the required dimensions, and then used it as a 
pattern in cutting out the others. He soon had 
a number of neat squares ready, which he handed 
to Bob, who immersed them in the melted wax. 


102 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

s While the paper was soaking this up, Joe cut out 
a corresponding number of tinfoil squares, leav¬ 
ing a projecting tongue on each one to serve as 
a terminal. 

“You’re an expert at carpenter work, Dough¬ 
nuts,” said Bob. “If you feel as ambitious as 
usual you can cut a couple of squares out of that 
oak plank over in the corner. We’ll need them 
for end pieces to' this condenser.” 

“Oh, that will be lots of fun,” said Jimmy, 
who had been casting longing glances toward the 
old sofa. “I’d a good deal rather saw some more 
wood than take it easy. How big shall I make 
them ?” 

“About five inches each way, I should say,” 
answered Bob, reflectively. “That will give us 
room to drill holes in each corner to put the 
clamping bolts through. In that drawer under 
the table you’ll find some drills. I think a three- 
sixteenth drill ought to be all right. There are 
four brass bolts in that bag on the table, and 
you can measure them and see what size drill 
you’ll need. I bought them for three-sixteenth, 
anyway.” 

“You go ahead and cut out the pieces, Jimmy,” 
said Herb. “I’ll do the real hard work, like 
measuring the bolts and picking out the drill. 
Then when you get the end pieces cut out, the 


FORGING AHEAD 


103 


drill will be all ready for you to put the holes 
through.” 

Jimmy gave him a withering glance, but rolled 
up his sleeves and set to work. Once started he 
made the sawdust fly, and before very long had 
two stout looking pieces of solid oak cut out. 

“Where’s your drill, Herb?” he inquired then. 
“Don’t tell me you haven’t got that ready yet!” 

“All ready and waiting,” was the reply, and 
Herb handed over the required tool. “Go to it, 
and see that you make a first class job of it.” 

Clamping both pieces of wood in the vise, 
Jimmy ran the sharp hand drill through in a 
workmanlike manner, and then viewed his work 
with pardonable pride. 

“There you are,” he said. “If this condenser 
doesn’t condense, it won’t be because it hasn’t got 
two good end pieces, anyway.” 

“It’s funny that you should have to 1 condense 
electricity,” said Herb, with a twinkle in his eye. 
“It’s just the same as milk, isn’t it?” 

“Yes, it isn’t,” said Bob. “Another wise re¬ 
mark like that, and you’ll find yourself out in 
the wide, wide world, young fellow.” 

“I should say so,” said Joe. “That was a 
fierce one, Herb.” 

“Well, I’ll promise to be good,” returned Herb. 
“But I still think that was a pretty fine joke, only 


104 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

you fellows haven’t got enough sense of humor 
to appreciate it.” 

“We’ve got sense enough not to appreciate it, 
anyway,” said Jimmy. “It’s weakened me so 
that I’ll have to have another piece of chocolate 
to brace me up,” and he suited the action to the 
word. 

“When you’ve all had all the candy you want, 
we can go ahead and make this condenser,” said 
Bob. “Don’t let me hurry you, though.” 

“No chance of your hurrying me,” replied 
Jimmy. “I’m so all in now I can hardly move. 
But Herb and Joe will do anything you want them 
to. They’ve been taking it easy right along, so 
they shouldn’t mind working a little now.” 

“Jimmy has done more work to-night than I’ve 
seen him do altogether in the last six months,” 
said Joe. “So we’d better let him rest himself 
awhile now. He’s apt to get sick if we don’t.” 

“Well, I guess this paper has soaked up all the 
wax it’s going to, so we can go ahead with the 
rest of it,” said Bob, as he started fishing squares 
of impregnated paper out of the saucepan. 

He laid one sheet on one of the blocks that 
Jimmy had cut out, and on top of that laid a 
sheet of tinfoil, then another sheet of paper and 
one of tinfoil, alternating in this way until he had 
a number of sheets lined up. The little tabs or 
projections on each sheet of tinfoil he arranged 


FORGING AHEAD 


I0 5 

in opposite directions, so that half of them could 
be attached to a wire on one side of the condenser 
and half to a wire on the other side. Then he 
placed the other wooden block on top of the whole 
thing, passed the four screws through, one at 
each corner, and tightened them up evenly. 
This squeezed all superfluous paraffine from be¬ 
tween the plates, and held the whole assembly 
very securely and neatly. 

“That looks fine so far,” said Jimmy, critically. 
“But how do you mean to connect up all those 
tabs on the plates ?” 

“I guess about the only way will be to solder 
them,” replied Bob. “I used to have a soldering 
iron around here somewhere.” He rummaged 
in the big drawer under the bench and soon pro¬ 
duced the iron, which he then proceeded to heat 
over a gas flame. 

“While that iron's heating, I might as well fol¬ 
low Jimmy’s example and rest,” said Bob, throw¬ 
ing himself down on the sofa. “I’ve been think¬ 
ing we haven’t heard much lately of Buck Looker 
or any of his gang. Has anybody heard what 
he’s up to now?” 

“I saw him only this afternoon,” said Joe. 
“He had Lutz and Mooney with him, of course, 
and they all looked at me as though they’d like 
nothing better than to heave a brick at me when 
I wasn’t looking. Buck asked me how the wire- 


106 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


less ’phone was coming along, and when I told 
him that we had our aerial up and expected to 
be receiving stuff within a few days, he seemed 
surprised.” 

“What did he say?” asked Herb. 

“Oh, he just predicted that we’d never get it 
working, and as I didn’t feel like arguing with 
him, I started on. I hadn’t gone far though when 
that little sneak, Terry, yelled after me: ‘Hey, 
Atwood, don’t forget that all that goes up must 
come down.’ The others snickered, and I had 
half a mind to go back and make him tell me what 
he meant. But then I thought he wasn’t worth 
bothering with, and I went on home. What do 
you suppose he meant, anyway?” 

Bob thought a moment before replying. 

“You say you told him that we had our aerial 
up ?” he asked, at length. 

“Yes, I did tell him that.” 

“Well, it would be just like them to try to 
pull down our wires, if they thought they could 
get away with it. Maybe that’s what Terry 
meant about ‘all that goes up must come down/ 
What do you think?” 

“Say!” exclaimed Joe, leaping to his feet, “I’ll 
bet that was just what he meant, the little sneak. 
But he’d never have nerve enough to try any¬ 
thing like that himself.” 

“Maybe not. But I think Buck Looker 


FORGING AHEAD 


107 

might/’ said Bob. “If he does, I only hope I’ll 
have the luck to catch him at it.” 

“Those fellows need a good licking, and it’s 
up to us tO' give it to them,” said Herb indig¬ 
nantly. “I’m game to do my share any time.” 

“Oh, well, it may have been just some non¬ 
sense of Terry’s. But we’d better be on our 
guard, anyway,” said Bob, rising to get the solder¬ 
ing iron. “Whew! but this is hot now, all right. 
I’ll let it cool a bit, and get the condenser ready 
for soldering.” 


0 


CHAPTER XIII 


THRASHING A BULLY 

Stripping a length of copper wire, Bob nipped 
off two short lengths with his pliers and fastened 
them to opposite sides of the condenser with 
small staples. Then he brought all the tinfoil 
plate terminals on each side in contact with the 
wire on that side, and connected the terminals 
with their respective wires with a small drop of 
solder on each. Then he produced a roll of or¬ 
dinary bicycle tire tape and wound the whole 
thing neatly in this, leaving only the ends of the 
two copper wires projecting a distance of per¬ 
haps a quarter of an inch. 

“There!” he exclaimed, “we can solder our 
other wires up to them when we come to connect 
up the set. It isn’t very fancy, but it ought to 
do the work.” 

“Gee, Bob, you must have been studying up on 
this,” said Jimmy. “To look at your work, any 
one would think you’d been doing this all your 
life.” 


108 


THRASHING A BULLY 


109 


“I did look it up after you fellows went home 
last night,” admitted Bob. “This condenser isn’t 
made just the way they say, but the principle is 
the same, and I guess that is the main thing.” 

“We won’t worry about how it’s made if it 
only works,” said Joe, “and I guess it will do 
that all right.” 

“We’ll hope so, anyway,” said Bob. “But 
there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to 
hook our set up and see if we get signals through. 
And if we do—oh boy!” 

“I’ll bet it will work like a charm,” said 
Jimmy enthusiastically. “We haven’t got to 
make much more now, have we?” 

“We’ve got to make a panel and mount all 
these inventions on it,” said Herbert. 

“That won’t take very long,” said Bob. “Of 
course, we can’t do it to-night, but to-morrow’s 
Saturday, and if we get started early we may be 
able to fix things up SO' that we can hear some¬ 
thing to-morrow night. Saturday night is the 
time they usually send out the biggest number of 
musical selections, and if we have luck we may 
be able to listen in on them.” 

“Wow!” exclaimed Herb. “Won’t that be the 
greatest thing that ever happened? You can’t 
start too early to suit me.” 

“Nine o’clock’s early enough,” said Bob. 
“Everybody come around here then and we’ll 


no THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

make things hum. There’s still plenty to do, but 
jve ought to get it finished before that.” 

The boys were so excited at the prospect of 
actually operating their set the following evening 
that they could hardly sit still two minutes at a 
time. They laughed and joked and speculated 
on what would be the first thing they would hear 
through the air, and finally Bob’s guests started 
home in an hilarious mood. 

Bob himself cleaned up his bench a bit after 
the others had gone, and then went' upstairs to 
his bedroom, which had a window in the rear of 
the house. He had just started to undress when 
he thought he heard a peculiar noise outside. At 
once the thought of what Joe had said about his 
encounter with Buck Looker and his companions 
leaped into his mind, and he crossed swiftly to 
the window and looked out. 

It had been cloudy all the evening, but now 
the clouds were beginning to break away, allow¬ 
ing bursts of moonlight to shine through at in¬ 
tervals. When Bob first looked out of the win¬ 
dow, the moon was obscured by a ragged patch 
of cloud and he could barely make out the dim 
outline of the bam. But as the cloud passed on 
and the moon began to shine through the thin¬ 
ning fringe of vapor, Bob saw an indistinct figure 
on the roof, and as the moon came out more 
strongly he could see that the figure was tinker- 


THRASHING A BULLY m 

ing with the end of the aerial that was lastened 
to the bam. 

Bob had no difficulty in recognizing Buck 
Looker, and without more ado he made for the 
back stairs leading down to the kitchen. Hot 
rage was in his heart and a resolve to have it 
out with the bully once and for all. Noiselessly 
he unfastened the kitchen door and passed out 
into the night, approaching the barn with as little 
noise as an Indian. 

Buck Looker was entirely unconscious of his 
approach, and was still fussing with the aerial 
when Bob’s voice reached him, pleasant enough, 
but with a steely note in it that almost made the 
bully lose his hold on the roof. 

“Hello, Buck !”• said Bob. “What are you do¬ 
ing up there?” 

For a few moments the shock of hearing Bob’s 
voice so unexpectedly unnerved Buck completely, 
and he could do nothing but peer down at Bob 
with an expression of guilt and dismay on his 
coarse face. 

“Why—why-” he gasped at last, making 

an effort to pull himself together. “Why, you 
see, Bob, I—I just thought I’d like to see how 
you fastened this thing up. Lutz and I were 
thinking of putting one up ourselves, and we 
wanted to find out how to do it,” he went on, 
glibly. 


o 



112 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

“Come on down off that roof and take your 
medicine,” said Bob, ignoring this flimsy excuse. 
“You've had a licking coming to you for a long 
time, and now you're going to get it.” 

“Maybe you’ll be sorry when I do come down,” 
blustered Buck. “You let me alone though, and 
I won’t hurt you.” 

“Shut up and come down,” said Bob grimly. 
“You’ve got to come down sooner or later, and 
you can bet I’ll be waiting here for you when you 
arrive.” 

The bully hesitated for a time, but his position 
on the roof was precarious, and he saw that Bob 
was in earnest and meant to wait for him. He 
summoned up what little courage he could, there¬ 
fore, and came slowly down a ladder that he 
had reared against the side of the barn furthest 
from the house. 

Bob waited until Looker was fairly on the 
ground before making a move. While descend¬ 
ing the ladder Buck had made up his mind to run 
for it as soon as he reached the ground, for he 
had little liking for an encounter with Bob, al¬ 
though many times he had talked big about what 
he was going to do to him some day. But Bob 
had no intention of letting him escape so easily, 
and as Buck put his foot on the ground and turned 
with the intention of running, Bob was on him 
with the fury of a wildcat. Buck was prepared 


THRASHING A BULLY 


1 13 

for this too, and when he saw that he was fairly 
cornered started to fight back. 

Looker was bigger and heavier than Bob, and 
for a time held his own, but Bob had the mem¬ 
ory of more than one wrong to avenge, and a 
gallant spirit that took no heed of blows received 
so long as he could punish his enemy. 

For many minutes they fought back and forth, 
giving and taking in fierce fashion. Buck landed 
one or two heavy blows, but Bob only shook his 
head and bored in more fiercely than ever. He 
rained blows on the retreating bully, who was 
soon getting enough and more than enough. At 
length Bob saw an opening, and quick as a flash 
a fist shot up and caught Looker square under 
the jaw. The bully's head rocked back, his knees 
sagged under him, and he dropped limply to the 
ground. Panting, Bob stood over him, waiting 
for Looker to get to his feet again, but when after 
a few seconds the bully opened his eyes, there was 
no sign of fight left in them. 

“Get up, you big blowhard!” panted Bob. 
“I'm not through with you yet.” 

But Buck Looker was through, abjectly and 
entirely through. 

“Have a heart, Bob,” he whined. “I don’t 
want to fight any more. My jaw feels as though 
it was broken.” 

“I hope it is!” said Bob. “You big bully? 


114 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

What do you mean by climbing up on my barn 
and trying to wreck my aerial ?” 

“I won’t ever try to' monkey with it again, hon¬ 
est I won’t!” whined Buck. 

“You’d better not,” advised Bob grimly. 
“And when you see your friends, tell them I’ll 
do the same to them that I’ve done to you if they 
come around here. They’d better keep off these 
premises unless they’re looking for trouble.” 

“I’ll tell them to keep hands off,” promised 
Buck, nursing his injured jaw. “Will you prom¬ 
ise not to hit me if I get up?” 

“Yes," get up and get out of here,” said Bob, 
disgustedly, and he turned his back contemp¬ 
tuously on the bully and started for the house. 
As he turned his back, Buck scrambled to his 
feet with a look of malignant hatred on his face 
and looked about him, apparently in search of 
some object he could use as a weapon. For¬ 
tunately there was nothing handy that he could 
use as such, and after stealthily shaking his fist 
at Bob he sneaked off toward town, one hand still 
holding his injured jaw. 

After washing his face in cold water, Bob saw 
that he had received only a few minor scratches 
and bruises. 

“I guess I taught that big bully a lesson that 
he won’t forget in a hurry,” he reflected. “It 
will be a long time before he or any of his sneak- 


THRASHING A BULLY 


IIS 

ing friends will come tampering with our wireless 
again. He’s had that licking coming to him for 
a long time, and I’m glad I was lucky enough to 
be the one to give it to him.” 

Tired out by the encounter, Bob turned in and 
slept soundly until awakened by the morning sun 
streaming in through the open window. 


CHAPTER XIV 

ON THE VERGE 

Bob felt sore and stiff as a result of the moon¬ 
light battle, but he showed little visible sign of it, 
although there was enough to excite questioning 
at the breakfast table. Bob narrated what had 
taken place, and the family was very indignant 
over Buck’s invasion of their property. 

“If you hadn’t given young Looker such a 
sound trouncing I would make a complaint to 
his father,” said Mr. Layton. “But under the 
circumstances I guess there is no need to say any¬ 
thing further about it. His misdeeds seem to 
have brought their own punishment somewhat 
sooner than is usual,” he added, with a twinkle 
in his eye. 

“Yes, I don’t think he’ll come bothering around 
here in a hurry, Dad,” said Bob. “I always 
thought he had a streak of yellow in him, and 
now I’m sure of it.” 

“Most bullies have,” observed Mr. Layton, as 
he rose to go down to the store. “I’m glad you 
caught him at it before he had a chance to do any 
116 


ON THE VERGE 


117 

damage, because I’m getting interested in that 
radio business myself. If you boys really get it 
going with the apparatus that you’ve made your¬ 
selves you’ll deserve a lot of credit.” 

“Well, we’ll soon know whether it works or 
not,” said Bob. “We hope to have it in shape 
to test out to-night.” 

“So* soon?” said Mr. Layton, surprised. “That 
will be fine! I hope you won’t be disappointed,” 
and he went out on his way down to the store. 

He had been gone hardly half an hour when 
Bob heard a cheerful chorus of whistles outside, 
and knew that his friends had arrived bright and 
early, as they had promised. 

“Here we are, right on the job,” said Jimmy, 
as Bob opened the door for them. “But say, 
what’s happened to you? You look as though 
you’d been in a fight.” 

“There’s nothing surprising about that, because 
I have been in a fight,” replied Bob, grinning. 

“With whom?” they all asked at once. 

“An old friend of ours—dear old Buck 
Looker,” responded Bob. 

“Well, what—what—when did you see him to 
fight with him?” stuttered Jimmy. 

“If all happened last -night after you fellows 
had gone home,” said Bob, and then gave them 
an account of how he had surprised the bully and 
the fight that had followed. 


Il8 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


“Well!” exclaimed Joe, drawing a long breath 
when Bob had finished, “I’m glad you gave him 
a good licking, Bob. I envy you because you had 
the chance first. Fd like to get a look at Buck 
now.” 

“I imagine he’ll keep out of sight for a few 
days,” returned Bob. “I don’t think I improved 
his beauty any.” 

“I wonder if he had time to> damage the aerial 
any,” said Herb. “Have you taken a look at it 
yet, Bob?” 

“No, I haven’t been up,” said Bob. “We 
might do that now, I suppose.” 

Accordingly the four boys climbed up on the 
barn, using the same ladder that Buck Looker 
had used the night before. They found that 
Buck, with his customary lack of brains, had 
failed to provide himself with a pair of wire cut¬ 
ters, with which he could have easily clipped the 
aerial, but instead had tried to unwind the wire 
from the insulator eyelet with his fingers. He 
had succeeded in getting it partially unfastened 
before Bob had interrupted him, but it took the 
boys only a few moments with a pair of pliers 
to rewind it, leaving everything as strong as 
before. 

“That just shows how little brain power that 
fellow has,” said Joe. “What good would it 
have done him if he had got the aerial down? 


ON THE VERGE 


119 

It wouldn’t have taken us long to put it up 
again.” 

“Just for the satisfaction of boasting about it, 
I suppose,” said Herb. “But I guess, he won’t 
say much, about this affair. He’ll calm down for 
some time to come, anyway.” 

“We’d never, have heard the last of it from 
that bunch' if they had been able to put some¬ 
thing over on us,” said BqJ>. “But never mind 
that crowd now. Let’s get to- work on our panel 
and see if we. can’t get things hitched up in time 
for the Saturday evening concert. I’m crazy to 
get the thing actually finished now.” 

“No more than I am,” said Joe. “Let’s go!” 

His three chums all felt very much at home 
in Bob’s workroom, and knew where to find the 
various tools almost as well as Bob did himself. 
Jimmy was given the job of sawing a panel board 
out of an oak plank, while the others busied them¬ 
selves with stripping the insulation from lengths 
of wire and scraping the bared ends to be sure 
of a good, clean connection. Bob also cleaned 
and tinned his soldering iron, in preparation for 
the numerous soldered joints that it would be 
necessary to make. 

“It seems to me you rest an awful lot in be¬ 
tween strokes, Doughnuts,” said Herbert to that 
perspiring individual. “Why don’t you keep 
right on sawing until you get through? It seems 


0 


120 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

% 

to me that would be a lot better than the way 
you’re doing it.” 

“If you don’t like the way I’m doing this, just 
come and do it yourself,” was the indignant reply. 
“I’d like to see you saw through twenty inches of 
seven-eighths oak without stopping. You always 
seem to get all the soft jobs, anyhow. When¬ 
ever there’s anything real hard to do, like this 
job, for instance, it gets wished on me.” 

“That’s because we know you like hard work,” 
said Bob, laughing. 

“Well, I get it whether I like it or not,” com¬ 
plained Jimmy. “But it’s almost done now, so 
I’ll finish it quickly and prevent any of you fel¬ 
lows having to do some real work.” 

“Jimmy’s certainly good at that, you have to 
admit it,” said Joe. “I could just stand here all 
day and admire the way he does it.” 

But for once the fat boy refused to rise to the 
bait, and kept doggedly on until at last he had a 
neat twenty inch- square cut out of the big plank. 

“There you are, Bob,” said Jimmy, panting. 
Now see if you can’t find some heavy job for 
these two Indians here.” 

“I’d like to, first rate,” laughed Bob, “but I 
guess you’ve about finished up the last of the hard 
jobs. Of course, we’ve still got to drill a lot of 
holes in that piece of wood, but that’s easy 
enough.” 


ON THE VERGE 


121 

“If you give me your word it’s easy, I’ll tackle 
it,” said Herb. “Where do we want the holes, 
Bob?” 

“I don't know yet,” said Bob. “We've got to 
arrange the different parts on the panel first, and 
find out just where we want them before we drill 
a single hole. I don’t want to have to change 
things around after we put holes in the board and 
spoil the appearance of it.” 

He laid the board on the bench, and arranged 
the tuning coil, the crystal detector, the con¬ 
denser, and the terminals for the head phone 
plugs in what he thought should be their proper 
positions, and then called for advice on this 
layout. 

“If anybody can think of a better way to set 
these things up, let him speak now or forever hold 
his peace,” said he. 

“That looks all right to me,” returned Joe, eye¬ 
ing the outfit critically. “But we'll have to raise 
the panel up an inch or two* so as to* give room 
underneath for wires and connections, shan’t 
we?” 

“Right you are!” exclaimed Bob. “There’s 
another job for you, Jimmy. We’ll have to have 
two cleats to go underneath and raise the whole 
business up.” 

“I thought it was about time for something else 
to come along for me,” grumbled Jimmy. “Just 


122 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

when I was thinking of lying down and resting, 
too.” 

“Oh, that’s nothing,” laughed Herb. “There 
never is a time when you’re not thinking of lying 
down and resting, so don’t let that worry you.” 

“Of course there are other times,” said Joe, 
while Jimmy was still struggling tcf find a crush¬ 
ing answer to Herb’s attack. “I’m surprised at 
you, Herb! How about all the times he’s think¬ 
ing of getting up and eating?” 

“Gosh, that was a bad mistake,” said Herb, 
with mock seriousness. “I did you an injustice, 
Doughnuts, and I apologize.” 

“You two will never get to be old,” said 
Jimmy, picking up his trusty saw. “You’re al¬ 
together too smart to live, I’m afraid.” 

“Oh, I don’t think there’s any need to worry 
about that,” said Bob, casually, coming to 
Jimmy’s aid. “I think myself they’ll probably 
live to be a hundred.” 

“Wow!” exclaimed Joe. “That was a wicked 
wallop, Bob.” 

“It’s no more than you deserve,” said Jimmy. 
“A good wallop with the business end of a gas 
pipe would be about the best thing that could hap¬ 
pen to some people.” 

“I’m glad he doesn’t mean us, Joe,” said Herb, 
with a wink at his friend. 

“Never mind whom I mean,” said Jimmy. 


ON THE VERGE 


123 


“Here are your cleats, so you can get busy and 
screw them on to the back of that panel. I’ll lie 
down on the couch and watch you to see that you 
don’t make any mistakes.” 

“No danger of that,” said Herb. “I couldn’t 
make a mistake if I tried. Wait till I get hold 
of a screw driver and watch my speed.” 

“You’ll probably make a mistake without try¬ 
ing,” said Jimmy, “but I suppose there’s no use 
trying to give you good advice, so go ahead.” 

However, Herb justified his modest estimate 
of himself this time, for he soon had the cleats 
strongly fastened to the back of the panel, rais¬ 
ing it two inches, which gave plenty of clearance 
for wires and screw heads underneath. 

“That will make a better job of it, anyway,” 
said Bob. “I was figuring on running the wires 
on the top side, but if we put them underneath 
it will look neater, although it will take longer 
to do it.” 

“We might as well do it up brown now that 
we’ve got this far,” said Joe, and the others were 
of the same opinion. 

The boys arranged the various pieces of ap¬ 
paratus to their satisfaction, and then drilled 
holes through and bolted them securely to the 
back. This also took a little more time than 
merely to screw them to the face of the panel, 
but made a more secure and lasting piece of work. 


0 


124 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

They were still drilling holes and clamping down 
nuts when Mrs. Layton called down to tell them 
that lunch was ready. 

“Gosh! is it lunch time already?” exclaimed 
Joe. “It seems as though we had hardly got 
started yet.” 

“I guess it is, just the same,” said Bob. “Let's 
wash our hands, and eat.” 

“This seems like rubbing it in, though,” pro¬ 
tested Herb. “We’ve almost been living here at 
your house lately, Bob, and now we’re putting 
your mother to the trouble of getting lunch for 
us. I think we ought to go home and come 
around later.” 

“Oh, nonsense,” said Bob. “Mother’s got 
everything all ready now, and she’d feel bad if 
you didn’t stay. Come on up,” and he set the 
example by making for the stairs. 

“Oh, well, if you insist,” said Herb. “But I 
bet when Mrs. Layton sees what we do 1 to the 
eats, she’ll never ask us again.” 

“Oh, she’s used to seeing them disappear pretty 
fast,” said Bob, “and I don’t think anything will 
surprise her now.” 

Mrs. Layton made the outside boys welcome 
with a few cheery words, and all sat down to a 
lunch in which fresh sliced ham, hot biscuits, and 
honey played a conspicuous part. Mrs. Layton 
was famous as a good cook, and it is certain that 


ON THE VERGE 


125 


the present patrons of her art did not lack in 
appreciation. Before they got through, the table 
was swept almost clear of eatables, and even the 
insatiable Jimmy appeared satisfied, so much so 
that he appeared to have difficulty in rising with 
the others. 

“I guess we don’t have to tell you how much 
we enjoyed everything, Mrs. Layton,” said Herb. 
“Actions speak louder than words, you know.” 

“I’m glad you liked it,” she said. “I guess 
you’ll all be able to get along till supper time 
now,” she added, with a smile. 

“Let’s go out on the grass awhile,” proposed 
Jimmy. “I’ve got to lie down and rest a bit be¬ 
fore I can do anything else. You slaves can 
work if ypu want to, but not for little Jimmy.” 

It must be confessed that the others felt about 
the same way, so they all went out and lay on the 
soft grass under a big apple tree that grew near 
the kitchen door. 

“Ah, this is the life!” sighed Jimmy, as he 
stretched out luxuriously on his back and gazed 
up at the cloud-flecked sky. 

“It isn’t so bad,” admitted Bob, biting on ten¬ 
der blades of young grass. “But I’d enjoy it 
more if we had our outfit together and working.” 

“It won’t take long to finish it now, do you 
think?” asked Joe. 

“Not unless, we strike a snag somewhere,” said 


126 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


Bob. “After we get everything assembled, 
we’ve still got to run our leading-in wire down to 
my bedroom. But I don’t think that will take 
us very long.” 

“By ginger, I just can’t loaf around until we 
do 1 get it working!” exclaimed Joe, springing to 
his feet. “Come on, fellows, let’s get busy. We 
can take it easy after we have everything 
fixed up.” 

“I’m with you,” said Bob. “I feel the same 
way myself.” 

Herb jumped up too, but the only sound from 
Jimmy was a raucous snore ending in a gurgle. 

“Poor old Jimmy!” said Bob. “We’ve had 
him working hard the last few days, and I sup¬ 
pose he’s tired out. Let him sleep awhile.” 

So Jimmy was left to blissful slumber, and the 
others returned to their fascinating task. 


CHAPTER XV 


THE FINISHING TOUCH 

The three chums set to work with a will, cut¬ 
ting, stripping, and soldering wires, and while 
the afternoon was still young they made their 
last connection and found themselves possessed 
of a real honest-to-goodness radio receiving out¬ 
fit, not quite so beautifully finished and polished 
off as a set bought readymade in a store, perhaps, 
but still serviceable and practical. 

“Hooray !” shouted all three together, so loudly 
that the sound reached Jimmy, still lying on the 
grass, and roused him from his blissful slumber. 

“What’s the matter here ?” he asked a few mo¬ 
ments later, coming sleepily down the stairs. “Is 
the place on fire, or what?’’ 

‘*No, but we’ve got the whole set together at 
last, and we thought we were entitled to a yell 
or two,” explained Bob. 

“Gee, that’s fine! I didn’t mean to sleep so 
long. Why didn’t you wake me sooner?” 

“You seemed to be enjoying that snooze so 
127 


128 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


much that we hated to disturb you/’ said Bob. 
“There wasn’t very much you could have done, 
anyway.” 

“Well, I certainly feel a lot better,” said 
Jimmy, with a prodigious yawn. “What’s the 
next thing on the program?” 

“All we’ve got to do now is to hook up our 
leading-in wire and ground wire and we’ll be all 
set,” said Bob. “I’ve got a fine big table in my 
bedroom, and I was thinking that that would be 
a fine place to mount all our things and keep them 
together.” 

This was agreeable to all concerned, so they 
repaired forthwith to Bob’s room. This was sit¬ 
uated on the top floor, and, as it happened, almost 
under the scuttle leading onto the roof. This 
made it comparatively easy to connect up with 
the antenna, as all they had to do was to bring the 
leading-in wire through the frame of the scuttle, 
drill a hole through the attic floor and the ceiling 
of Bob’s room, and drop the insulated leading-in 
wire through. To make it perfectly safe, they 
surrounded the wire, where it passed through the 
scuttle and ceiling, with a fire proof asbestos bush¬ 
ing or sleeve. In this work they received some 
advice from Dr. Dale, who chanced to drop in. ,j 

All this work took some time, and it was nearly 
dark when they had made all their connections, 
including the ground connection to a water pipe. 


THE FINISHING TOUCH 


120 


On one comer of Bob’s big table they had in-; 
serted a small knife-blade switch in the leading-in 
wire, so that the set could be disconnected from 
the aerial when not in use, or during storms so 
as to guard against lightning. 

When all was finished the boys viewed the re¬ 
sult of so many hours of hard work and planning 
with mingled feelings of delight at its business¬ 
like appearance and apprehension that, after all, 
it might not work. | 

“Gee, I’m almost afraid to try it,” said Bob. 
“But we’ve got to find out what rotten radio con¬ 
structors we are some time, so here goes,” and he 
produced his set of head phones. So did Joe 
and Herb, but Jimmy was struck with a sudden 
unpleasant thought. 

“Great Scott!” he exclaimed. “I’ve gone and 
left my set home. I’ll get it and come back as 
soon as I can,” and he dived precipitately out of 
the room. 

“He didn’t need to be in such a hurry,” laughed 
Bob. “We could have taken turns with ours.” 

“Well, let’s connect up, anyway, and see if we 
can hear anything,” said Joe. “There’s no use 
waiting until Jimmy gets back. It won’t take 
him a long while, and likely enough he’ll be back 
before we raise any signals, anyway.” 

“Well, pull up your chairs, and we’ll plug in,” 
said Bob, adjusting the ear phones over his head. 


f I 3 o THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

“I saw in this morning's paper that the Newark 
broadcasting station was going to- send out an 
orchestra concert this afternoon, and if our set 
is any good we ought to hear part of it.” 

They all adjusted their ear phones and then 
drew up chairs and inserted the plugs in the spring 
sockets designed for their reception. They had 
connected four pairs of these sockets in parallel, 
so that all four head sets could be used at once. 

Now was the crucial moment, and the boys 
waited breathlessly for some sound to come out 
of the air to them. 


CHAPTER XVI 


SWEETS OF VICTORY 

Bob set one of the sliders about at the middle 
of the tuning coil, and set the other—the one con¬ 
nected to the leading-in wire—about opposite. 
Then he adjusted the sharp pointed wire on the 
detector until the point was just touching the 
crystal. Still there was no sound in the ear 
phones, and the boys looked at one another in 
bitter disappointment. Bob moved the antenna 
slider" slowly along the tuning coil, and suddenly, 
faint, but very clear, the boys heard the opening 
chords of an overture played by a famous orches* 
tra nearly a hundred miles away! Sweet and 
resonant the distant music rose and fell, growing 
in tone and volume as Bob manipulated the con¬ 
tacts along the coil. The boys sat spellbound 
listening to this miracle, to this soul stirring 
music that seemed as though it must surely be 
coming from some other world. Hardly breath¬ 
ing, they listened until the last blended chords 
whispered away into space, and then looked at 
131 


o 


132 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

each other like people just awakened from a 
dream. 

Bob was the first to speak. 

“I think we can call our set a success, fellows,” 
he said, with a quiet smile. 

“Bob, that was simply wonderful!” cried Joe, 
jumping up and pacing about the room in his ex¬ 
citement. “Why, we can sit here and hear that 
orchestra just as well as though we were in the 
same hall with it. It seems like a fairy tale.” 

“So it is,” said Bob. “Only this is a fairy tale 
that came true. I wish Jimmy had been here to 
listen in with us.” 

“He’s here now, anyway,” said a familiar 
voice, and Jimmy burst into the room, puffing and 
blowing. “Does it work, fellows? Tell me 
about it.” 

“I should say it did work!” replied Joe. “We 
just heard a wonderful selection played by a big 
orchestra. It must be the Newark broadcasting 
station, as they had promised a concert for this 
afternoon.” 

“I missed it, then, didn’t I?” said Jimmy, with 
a downcast face. 

“Yes, but they’ll play something else pretty 
soon,” said Herb. “Plug in with your ear 
phones, and maybe you’ll hear something to cheer 
you up.” 

“It will take quite a good deal,” said Jimmy, 


SWEETS OF VICTORY 


133 


“after hoofing it all the way to my house and back 
on the double quick. I’ll bet that trip took ten 
pounds off me, if it took an ounce.” 

“That won’t hurt you any,” said Joe, with a 
total lack of sympathy for his friend’s trials. 
“Hurry up and plug in here, so that we’ll be ready 
for the next number on the program.” 

“Oh, all right, all right,” said Jimmy, adjust¬ 
ing his phones. “If I’m not ready, just tell ’em 
to wait.” 

The absurdity of this idea raised a laugh, 
which was suddenly cut short as the first notes 
of a rousing march came ringing into the ear 
phones. Every note was true and distinct as be¬ 
fore, with practically no interference, and when 
the last note had died away the boys rose and as 
though actuated by one impulse, executed an 
impromptu war dance. 

When they had quieted down somewhat, Bob 
rushed downstairs and brought his mother up to 
hear her first radio concert. She was rather in¬ 
credulous at first, but when the first notes of a 
violin solo reached her ears, her expression sud¬ 
denly changed, and when the selection was over 
she was almost as enthusiastic as the boys them¬ 
selves. 

“That was simply wonderful!” she exclaimed. 
“I never imagined you would be able to hear any¬ 
thing half as distinctly as that.” 


134 THB RABI 0 BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

“Y 11 bet you never thought you’d hear anything 
over our home-made set, now did you?” accused 
Bob. 

Mrs. Layton looked a trifle guilty. “I never 
thought you’d get it working so soon nor so per¬ 
fectly,” she confessed. “But now that you have, 
I certainly congratulate you.” 

They all listened for some time for something 
else to come in over the aerial, but apparently 
the concert was over, for they could hear nothing 
but a confused murmur, with here and there some 
fragment of a sentence coming out clear above 
the general confusion. This was probably due 
to the sending being so distant as to be almost 
beyond their range. Just before supper time 
they heard a message from a ship at sea, and Joe, 
Herb, and Jimmy could hardly tear themselves 
away to go home to supper. They finally got 
started, however, promising to return as soon as 
they could after supper, so as to be in time for 
the evening concert. 

After they had gone, Bob called up Doctor 
Dale, and told him of the successful outcome of 
their experiment. The minister was delighted. 

“That’s great work!” he exclaimed heartily. 
“So the set works well, does it ?” 

“Yes, sir, it certainly does,” said Bob. “Of 
course it’s not as good as yours, and we can’t tune 
out interference very well. But it does all that 


SWEETS OF VICTORY 


135 

I hoped it would, and more. I wish you could 
get around to hear it when you get a chance.” 

“I tell you what I’ll do,” said the doctor. “I 
have an expert radio man visiting me here this 
evening. How would it be if I dropped around 
some time during the evening, and brought him 
with me?” 

“Fine!” exclaimed Bob, delighted at the pros¬ 
pect of talking with an experienced radio man. 
“We’ll all be looking for you, sir.” 

Bob was delighted over the doctor’s promise, 
and told his friends about it as soon as they ar¬ 
rived that evening. They were all equally 
pleased. 

“He can tell us just what we need to know,” 
commented Joe. “You can dig a lot of stuff out 
of books, but lots of times just the question you 
want answered doesn’t seem to be in them.” 

The boys had just raised the Newark station, 
and were listening to the first number on the pro¬ 
gram, a soprano solo, when the minister and his 
friend arrived. He introduced the stranger as 
Mr. Brandon, and the latter immediately made 
himself at home. 

“I hear you fellows got your Set working first 
crack out of the box,” he said, as they were going 
upstairs. “You’re luckier than I was with my 
first one, because I had a lot of trouble before I 
got my first signal through. I fooled around a 


136 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

long time before I found out what the trouble 
was, too.” 

“What was it?” asked Bob. 

“I finally found that the water pipes were in¬ 
sulated from the street pipes, as they are in some 
houses, so that I really didn’t have any ground 
at all, even though my ground wire was connected 
with a pipe in the bathroom. I might have been 
looking for the trouble yet if a friend of mine 
hadn’t given me a tip what to look for.” 

By this time they had reached Bob’s room, and 
Dr. Dale and Mr. Brandon inspected the boys’ 
outfit with great interest. 

“Pretty good for beginners, isn’t it, Brandon ?” 
said the minister at length, when they had gone 
over the thing at length and Bob had explained 
the way they had made the different units. 

“I should say so,” acquiesced the expert. 
“They’ve made up one of the neatest amateur 
jobs I’ve seen in a long time. Let’s see how it 
sounds,” 

He and the doctor donned head phones, and 
Mr. Brandon manipulated the tuning coil and 
the crystal detector with a deftness that spoke 
of long experience. He showed the boys how 
they might get even clearer and louder tones than 
any they had yet obtained by adjusting the de¬ 
tector until the best possible contact was obtained 
with the crystal. 


SWEETS OF VICTORY 


137 


“You could hear better with a more elaborate 
set, of course,” he said, “but you get mighty good 
results with what you’ve got. Of course, you’re 
range is limited to less than two hundred miles 
with this set, and your tuning range is limited, 
too. But you’ve made a fine start, and with this 
as a foundation you can go on adding equipment, 
if you like, until you have a first class receiving 
station.” 

“Yes, and after we get a little more experience, 
we want to try our hand at sending, too,” said 
Joe. 

“Well, that’s a more complicated undertaking,” 
said Mr. Brandon. “But there’s no reason why 
you shouldn’t, if you are willing to go to the 
trouble to learn the international code and take 
an examination. You have to be able to receive 
ten words a minute, you know, to get a license.” 

“I suppose you’re an expert both sending and 
receiving,” said Bob. 

“I ought to know something about it by this 
time,” said Mr. Brandon. “Uncle Sam has me 
working for him now as radio inspector, so I’m 
supposed to know something about it.” 

“Mr. Brandon was with the aviation radio 
branch of the service during the war,” explained 
Dr. Dale, “and he has seen radio telephony de¬ 
velop from almost nothing to what it is to-day.” 

“Yes, it was the war that speeded up the growth 


138 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

of radio,” said Mr. Brandon. “It revolutionized 
war in the air, and made it possible to control the 
movements of airplanes in a way that had never 
been dreamed of before.” 

“You must have had some mighty interesting 
and exciting work,” ventured Herb. 

“All of that,” admitted Dr. Dale’s friend, with 
a smile. “Once our whole station was wrecked 
by a bomb dropped on it from an enemy plane. 
Luckily, we all had time to duck out before the 
bomb landed, but there wasn’t anything left of 
our fine station but a big hole in the ground and 
bits of apparatus scattered around over the land¬ 
scape. There were very few dull moments in 
that life.” 

“It doesn’t sound very dull,” said Bob, 
laughing. 

“I can assure you it wasn’t,” said the radio 
expert. “But in the case I was telling you about, 
our airmen brought down the fellow who had 
dropped the bomb, which made us feel a little 
better.” 

“There’s some interesting stuff coming in 
now,” said Dr. Dale, who had been listening in at 
the receiving set. “They’re sending out news 
bulletins now, and I’d advise you to listen for a 
bit. It’s away ahead of reading a newspaper, I 
assure you.” 

“Besides being easier on the eyes,” grinned 


SWEETS OF VICTORY 


139 


Mr. Brandon. “Let’s hear what it’s all about.” 

Sitting at ease, they heard many important 
news items of the day recorded. There was a 
little interference from an amateur sender, but 
they finally managed to eliminate this almost en¬ 
tirely by manipulation of the tuning coil. 

“I know that fellow,” said Brandon. “I was 
inspecting his outfit just a few days ago. He’s 
got a pretty good amateur set, too. He’s located 
in Cooperstown, not twenty miles from here.” 

“My, you must know every station in this part 
of the country!” exclaimed Joe, surprised. 

“It’s my business to know them all,” said 
Brandon. “And if anybody takes a chance and 
tries to send without a license, it’s up to me to 
locate him and tell him what’s what.” 

“It must be hard to locate them, isn’t it?” asked 
Jimmy. 

“Sometimes it is,” returned the radio inspector. 
“I’m tracing down a couple now, and hope to land 
them within a few days.” 

The little company had some further interest¬ 
ing talk, and then, as it was getting rather late, 
Dr. Dale and his friend rose to go. 

“I’m glad to have met all you fellows,” said 
the radio expert, shaking hands all around. “If 
there’s anything I can do* to help you along at 
any time, Dr. Dale can tell you where to find me, 
and I’ll be glad to be of service.” 


i 4 o THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

The boys thanked their visitor heartily, and 
promised to avail themselves of his offer in case 
they found that they needed help. Then Bob 
saw the visitors to the door, and returned to his 
friends. 

“We’re mighty lucky to have met a man like 
that, who knows this game from start to finish,” 
said Joe. “I’d give a lot to know what he does 
about it.” 

“You never will know as much,” said Jimmy. 
“Mr. Brandon is a smart man.” 

“Meaning that I’m not, I suppose?” said Joe. 
“Well, there’s no need of my being smart as long 
as you’re around with your keen young mind.” 

“It’s nice of you to say so,” said Jimmy, choos¬ 
ing to ignore the sarcasm in Joe’s tone. “I never 
expected to hear you admit it, though.” 

“I’ll have to get you two Indians a pair of 
boxing gloves, and let you settle your arguments 
that way, pretty soon,” came from Bob. 

“Nothing doing,” said Jimmy. “Boxing is 
too much like work, and it’s time to go home, 
anyway,” and he rose to look for his hat. “Any¬ 
body coming my way?” 

“Well, if there were any more messages com¬ 
ing in, I’d ask Bob to let me stay all night,” said 
Joe. “But as it is, I suppose I might as well go, 
too. Coming, Herb ?” 

“Yes, I suppose I’ll have to.” 


SWEETS OF VICTORY. 


141 

“Not at all,” put in Jimmy. ‘I’m sure Mrs. 
Layton would just love to have you two fellows 
planted on her for a life time.” 

“Nothing doing!” declared Bob, laughing. 

In a few moments three tuneful whistlers were 
making their way homeward, with hearts elated 
at the success of their first venture into the wide 
field of radio telephony. 




CHAPTER XVII 


THE FERBERTON PRIZE 

For several days nothing of special interest 
happened in Clintonia. Buck Looker made his 
appearance about the streets, one eye covered by 
a black patch. This he explained to his cronies 
by telling them that he wore the patch to keep 
out the sun, but even they had to take this with 
a large grain of salt, as Bob’s friends took pains 
to let the real cause of Buck’s trouble be known. 
Buck knew that he was not ‘getting away’ with 
his excuse, and the knowledge made him more 
surly and unpleasant than before. In the course 
of a few days he was able to discard the patch, 
but unfortunately he could not discard his mean 
and revengeful nature so easily, and his mind was 
continually occupied with plans to “get even.” 

“We’ll put that crowd out of business some 
way, you see if we don’t,” said Buck to Carl 
Lutz. 

“I’d like to do it, all right, but I don’t see just 
how we’re going to manage it,” replied Lutz. “If 
Bob Layton can lick you, he can lick any of our 
142 


THE FERBERTON PRIZE 


*43 

bunch, so we don’t want to get into trouble with 
them until we’ve got a sure thing.” 

Buck agreed heartily with this unsportsmanlike 
attitude, but had more confidence in fortune. 

“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “We’ll get 
our chance all right! And then won’t we rub 
it into Bob Layton and his crowd!” and his face 
wore even a more ugly and sinister look than 
usual. 

For the next few days the boys’ radio set was 
in much demand. Of course all their immediate 
relatives had to listen in, as it is called, and they 
also invited many of their friends, both boys and 
girls, to try it. 

“Oh, it’s too wonderful for anything,” de¬ 
clared Joe’s sister Rose. “To think of getting all 
that music from such a distance!” 

“Yes, and that splendid sermon Sunday after¬ 
noon!” exclaimed Mrs. Plummer. “I declare, if 
Dr. Dale doesn’t look out they’ll make it so no¬ 
body will have to go to meeting any more.” 

“I’ve certainly got to hand it to you boys,” was 
Doctor Atwood’s comment. “I didn’t think you 
could really do it. This radio business is going 
to change everything. Why, a person living 
away off in the country can listen in on the finest 
of concerts, lectures, sermons and everything else. 
And pick up all the very latest news in the 
bargain.” 


144 THE BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

One day Bob had to go out of town on an er¬ 
rand for his father and he was allowed to take 
Joe along. At the out-of-town railroad station 
they quite unexpectedly ran into Nellie Berwick. 
The girl had recovered from the shock of the 
automobile accident but looked much downcast. 

“No, I haven’t heard from Dan Cassey yet,” 
she said, in reply to a question from Bob. 

“Then he didn’t come back?” questioned Joe. 

“No—or, if he did, he is keeping in hiding. I 
guess my money is gone,” and the girl heaved a 
deep sigh. 

“The rascal, the dirty rascal!” was Bob’s com¬ 
ment, after they had left Miss Berwick. “Oh, 
how I would like to hand him over to the police!” 

“Yes, but give him a good licking first,” added 
his chum. 

While Buck Looker was still racking his brains 
for an appropriate form of punishment for Bob 
and his chums, a most interesting thing happened 
to the radio boys. The Representative in Con¬ 
gress of the district in which Clintonia was lo¬ 
cated, Mr. Ferberton, came out with an offer of 
a prize of one hundred dollars for the best am¬ 
ateur wireless outfit made by any boy in his dis¬ 
trict, and a second prize of fifty dollars. It was 
stipulated that the entire set, outside of thVhead 
phones, must be made by the boy himself, with¬ 
out any assistance from grown-ups. A time limit 


THE FERBERTON PRIZE 


145 


of three weeks was allowed, at the end of which 
time each set submitted was to be tried out by a 
committee composed of prominent business men 
and radio experts, and the prizes awarded to 
those getting the best results and making the 
neatest appearance. 

It may be imagined what effect this offer had 
on the four radio boys. The announcement was 
made at the high school one day, and from that 
time on the boys were engrossed with the idea 
of winning the coveted prize. 

“Just think of the honor it would be, let alone 
the hundred dollars,” said Bob. “Whoever wins 
that prize will be known through the entire 
State.” 

“I wouldn’t care much who got the honor, so 
long as I got first prize,” said Jimmy, avariciously. 
“What I couldn’t do with all that money—yum, 
yum!” 

“Yes, or even fifty dollars wouldn’t be any¬ 
thing to sneeze at,” said Joe. “I give you fellows 
notice right here that you’ll have to step mighty 
lively to beat yours truly to one of those fat 
plums.” 

“Gee, you’ll never have a chance,” said Jimmy. 
“Why, my set will be so good that it will prob¬ 
ably win both prizes. Nobody else will have 
a look in.” 

“All you’ll win will be the nickel plated neck- 


r I46 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

tie for trying,” said Herb. “If you really want 
to see the winner of the first prize, just gaze 
steadily in my direction,” and he grinned. 

‘Tm not saying anything, but that doesn’t 
prove that I’m not thinking a lot,” said Bob. 
“Never leave little Bob Layton out of it when 
there’s a prize hanging around to be picked.” 

“It would be just like your beastly luck to win 
it,” said Jimmy. 

“There won’t be much luck about this, I guess,” 
said Joe. “By the time the judges get through 
picking the winner, the chances are it will take 
a pretty nifty set to pull down first prize—or 
second, either, for that matter,” he added. 
“There’s a lot of fellows trying for it, I hear.” 

“Well, as far as we four go, we all start even,” 
continued Bob. “All that we know about radio 
we learned together, so nobody has a head start 
on the other.” 

“That doesn’t help me much,” said Herb. 
“What I need is a big head start. I think I’ll 
enjoy myself working the set we have already, 
and let you fellows slave your heads off trying 
for prizes. I know I’d never win one in a thou¬ 
sand years, anyway.” 

“Oh, you might—in a thousand years,” put in 
Jimmy, wickedly; “not any sooner than that, 
though.” 


THE FERBERTON PRIZE 


147 


“Oh, who asked you to put in your two cents' 
worth, you old croaker?" said Herb, giving 
Jimmy a poke in his well padded ribs. “I'll win 
that prize just as well by not working as you will 
by working. You know you’re too fat and lazy 
to make up a set all by your lonesome." 

“I'm not too lazy to try, anyway," returned the 
fat boy, “and that's more than some people can 
say." 

“He’s got you there, Herb," laughed Bob. 
“Why don't you start in and make a try for it, 
anyway ?" 

“Nothing doing," said Herb. “If I took the 
trouble to make a wireless outfit good enough to 
cop that prize, I'd expect them to pay me a thou¬ 
sand dollars for it instead of a measly little 
hundred." 

“To hear you talk, anyone would think that 
hundred dollar bills grew on trees," said Joe. 
“I’ll bet any money you never saw a hundred dol¬ 
lars all at one time, in your life." 

“To tell you the truth," said Herb, “I don't 
really believe there’s that much money in the 
whole world. I must admit I've never seen it, 
anyway." 

“You’ll see it when I show it to you," said 
Jimmy, with more show of confidence, it must be 
admitted, than he really felt. 


148 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

“Well, remember we're all pals," said Herb. 
“If you win that prize, Jimmy, I get half, don't 
I?" 

“Yes, you don't. I might blow you to an ice 
cream soda, but outside of that, my boy—nothing 
doing." 

One day the hardware dealer of whom they 
had purchased their supplies called Bob, Joe and 
Jimmy into his establishment. 

“Got something to show you," he declared im¬ 
portantly. “New box set, just from New York, 
and sells for only twenty-two fifty. Better than 
any you can make. Want to try it? There’s a 
concert coming in from Springfield right now." 

“Yes, sir, we'd like to try it, and it's good of 
you to let us," answered Bob. “But we believe 
in making our own sets. That's more than half 
the fun." 

“Yes, but just wait till you hear this box set," 
urged the dealer. “Then maybe you’ll want to 
own one. A professional set is always better 
than an amateur one, you know." 

The boys didn’t know but they did not say so. 
They followed the man to a back room of his 
establishment, where the box set rested on a plain 
but heavy table. 

“There are the ear phones, help yourselves," 
he said. “I've got to wait on that customer that 
just came in." 


THE FERBERTON PRIZE 149 

The three radio boys proceeded to make them¬ 
selves at home around the table. They adjusted 
the ear phones and listened intently. There was 
not a sound. 

“Guess the concert is over,” observed 
Doughnuts. 

“Wait till I make a few adjustments,” put in 
Bob, and proceeded to tune up as best he could. 
He had been reading his book of instructions 
carefully of late, so went to work with a good 
deal of intelligence. 

“There it is!” cried Joe, as the music suddenly 
burst upon their ears. “Listen, fellows! They 
are playing Dixie!” 

“And it sounds mighty good,” added Jimmy 
enthusiastically. 

“But no better than it would otj our set at 
home,” put in Bob, quickly. 

“Not a bit,” added Joe, loyally. 

The three lads listened to another selection and 
then the storekeeper joined them. 

“Isn’t that grand ?” said he. “I’ll bet you can’t 
make a box as good as that.” 

“Maybe we’ll make something better,” said 
Bob. “You come up to our place some day and 

listen to what we have.” 

“Then you don’t think you want a box?” And 
the shopkeeper’s voice indicated his disappoint¬ 
ment. 


150 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

“Not just yet anyway,” answered Bob. 

“We’d rather buy the parts from you and make 
our own,” added Joe. “Besides, we want to try 
for the Ferberton prizes.” 

“Oh, that’s it. Well, when you want anything, 
come to me,” concluded the dealer. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


FRIENDLY RIVALS 

, * 

The radio boys, Herb excepted, finally decided 
each to make his own set without any consultation 
with any of the others, and submit it to be judged 
strictly on its merits. 

“Three weeks ought to give us plenty of time,” 
said Bob. “I’m going to do a lot of experiment¬ 
ing before I start in to make the real set. Of 
course, the one we’ve already got belongs to all of 
us equally, and you fellows know you can come 
and use it any time you feel like it.” 

“Your mother will be putting us out if we 
spend much more time at your house,” replied 
Joe. “It seems as though we have just about 
been living there lately.” 

“Oh, don’t let that worry you,” said Bob. 
“You know you’re welcome at any time. Be¬ 
sides, we won’t have to put all our time on the 
new sets, either. We can have plenty of fun in 
the evening with our present one.” 

The boys finally agreed to build their sets each 
151 


152 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

by himself, and to say nothing about any features 
or improvements that they might incorporate in 
it. They were all enthusiastic over their chances, 
although they knew that the winners would have 
to overcome a lot of first-class opposition. 

Herb felt sorry at times that he had not started 
a set of his own, but his was an easy-going dis^ 
position that took things as they came, and while 
the other boys were studying all the books they 
could find on the subject and consulting Dr. Dale, 
Mr. Brandon having departed, he was listening to 
music and talk over the original set, and enjoying 
himself generally. 

“You go ahead and have all the fun you want 
now/’ said Joe one time, when Herb was teasing 
him about working so hard. “My fun will come 
later.” 

“Yes—if you win the prize,” said Herb. “But 
if you don’t, you won’t be any better off than I 
am, and you’ll be out all your work besides.” 

“Not a bit of it,” denied Joe. “Even if I don’t 
>vin either prize, my set will be returned to me 
after the judging is over, and I’ll have that to 
show for my trouble, anyway.” 

“Maybe you will, if they don’t tear it all apart 
while they’re looking it over,” said Herb. 

“Aw, forget it,” advised Joe. “If I don’t get 
anything out of it but the experience, I won’t 
think that I’ve wasted my time.” 


FRIENDLY RIVALS 


153 


“Well, that's the spirit, all right,” said Herb. 
“Go to it. But you ought to have heard the con¬ 
cert I heard last evening while you slaves were 
working your heads off.” 

“Yes, but when I get this outfit of mine work¬ 
ing, I’ll be able to hear everything a lot better 
than you can with the set we’ve got now,” said 
Joe. “I’ve got some good kinks out of a radio 
magazine that I’m going to put in mine, and it’s 
going to be a regular humdinger.” 

“Oh, all right, all right,” said Herb, laughing. 
“That’s the very thing that Jimmy was telling me 
only this afternoon. He’s putting a lot of sure 
fire extras on his set, too. I don’t think there 
will be enough prizes to go around.” 

“I don’t care whether there are or not, so long 
as I get one,” said Joe, with frank selfishness. 
“One is all I want.” 

“That’s probably exactly one more than you’ll 
get,” grinned Herb. “But you may astonish us 
all by working up something really decent. 
Funny things like that do happen, sometimes.” 

“ Tt’s easier to criticize than to create,’ ” quoted 
Joe. “Likewise, 'he who laughs last, irritates.’ 
If those two wise old sayings don’t hold you for a 
while, I’ll try to think up a few more for you.” 

“Oh, don’t bother, that’s plenty,” laughed 
Herb. “It doesn’t take many of those to satisfy 


154 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


“Well, I’ll have to leave you to your troubles,” 
said Joe. “Now that I’ve got this idea in my 
noodle, I won’t be able to rest until I get it worked 
up.” 

“Say, wait a minute,” said Herb. “I heard a 
swell joke to-day, and I know you’ll enjoy it. 

There was an Irishman and a Jew-” but at 

this formidable opening Joe rushed out, slam¬ 
ming the door behind him. “Well, it’s his loss,” 
thought Herb. “But it is a cracker jack story, 
just the same. I’ll have to go and find Bob and 
tell it to him.” 

He found Bob hard at work at his bench down¬ 
stairs. 

“Hey, Bob, want to hear a good joke?” he 
asked. 

“Nope,” said his friend, with discouraging 
brevity. 

“Gee!” exclaimed Herb, “you’re as bad as Joe. 
You neither of you seem to appreciate high-class 
humor any more.” 

“Oh, we appreciate high-class humor all right,” 
said Bob, with a wicked grin. “It’s only your 
kind that we can’t stand for.” 

“Bang!” exclaimed Herbert. “That settles it. 
Any one of you knockers who wants to hear that 
story now will have to come to me and ask for it.” 

“That’s all right, Herb. Just you hold on to 



FRIENDLY RIVALS 


155 

it until we do. Maybe it will improve with a 
little aging.” 

‘This story is so good that it can't be im¬ 
proved. But I'm going home now, so if you want 
to give yourself the pleasure of hearing it, you'd 
better say so right away.” 

“No, I’ll get along somehow without it,” an¬ 
swered Bob. “But maybe Jimmy would like to 
hear it. Have you tried it on him?” 

“No, and what's more, I’m not going to. I've 
lost my confidence in that story now. I guess 
it can't be so good after all.” 

“Probably not,” agreed Bob gravely. 

“Oh, get out!” cried Herb. “I'm going 
home!” and he departed indignantly, slamming 
the door behind him. 


CHAPTER XIX 


A SPLENDID INSPIRATION 

“Say, fellows, Eve been thinking about some¬ 
thing/’ said Bob seriously, so seriously, in fast, 
that the three boys who had been lolling on the 
grass turned over and regarded him with interest. 

“Gosh, did you hear what he said?” asked 
Herb, with a grin. “He’s got an idea, fellows. 
Hold your hats, I bet it’s a bear/’ 

“Spill it, Bob,” came from Jimmy, lazily. 

“Gee, he sure is a wonder, that boy,” said Joe, 
regarding his friend admiringly. “I’ve never 
known him to run out of ideas yet. Not but 
what some of ’em are rotten,” he added, grin¬ 
ning. The next minute he dodged a clump of 
moist earth thrown his way by the good-natured 
Bob, the result being that the missile landed 
square upon Jimmy’s unoffending head. 

The boys roared while poor Jimmy patiently 
brushed the dirt off, inquiring in injured accents 
what the big idea was, anyway. 

156 


A SPLENDID INSPIRATION 157 

“Good work, fellows,” crowed Herb joyfully. 
“That’s bully slap-stick work all right. You 
have a movie star beat a mile already.” 

“Say, cut out the comedy, will you, Herb?” 
asked Joe impatiently. “I want to hear about 
this great idea of Bob’s.” 

“I didn’t say it was great, did I?” demanded 
Bob modestly. “It’s just an idea, that’s all.” 

“Well, shoot,” demanded Herb laconically. 

Bob was silent for a moment, wondering just 
how he could best express the thought that had 
suddenly come to him, just a little afraid that the 
others might laugh a.t him. And where is the 
boy who does not dread being laughed at more 
than anything else in the world? 

The day had been unusually warm for the time 
of the year, and the radio boys, turning their 
backs upon the town, had started out for a long 
hike into the wdods. The heat, together with a 
visit to the doughnut jar just before meeting the 
boys, had wearied Jimmy, and he had been the 
first to suggest a rest. And so, having come 
across a talkative little brook, hidden deep in the 
heart of the woodland, the boys had been content 
to follow Jimmy’s suggestion. 

Sprawled on the mossy ground in various un¬ 
graceful, though comfortable positions, the boys 
lazily watched the hurrying little brook, throw¬ 
ing a pebble into it now and then and talking of 


I 5 s the RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

i ; 

the thing that almost always filled their minds 
these days—their radio outfits. 

At last, urged on by the boys, Bob made public 
his idea. 

“Why, I was just thinking-” he said 

slowly. “I was just thinking how awfully slow 
things must be for the poor shut-ins-- ” 

“What?” demanded Herb curiously. 

Bab frowned. It bothered him to be inter¬ 
rupted, especially when it was hard to express 
what he felt. 

“Shut-ins,” be repeated impatiently. “People 
who can’t get out and have fun like us fellows.” 

“Oh, you mean cripples like Joel Banks,” said 
Herb with relief. 

“Gee, did you just find that out?” murmured 
Jimmy, turning over on his stomach and won¬ 
dering if he really ought to have eaten that last 
doughnut. “Some folks are awful stupid.” 

Herb showed a strong desire to avenge this 
insult, but Joe quelled the threatened riot. 

“Cut out the rough stuff, can’t you, fellows?” 
he asked disgustedly. “Give Bob a chance.” 

“Well,” Bob continued during the temporary 
quiet that ensued, “I was just thinking what a 
mighty fine thing it would be for these poor folks 
who never have any fun if they could have a radio 
attachment in their own houses so that no matter 
how crippled they were, they could listen to a 




A SPLENDID INSPIRATION 


*59 


concert or the news, or any old thing they wanted 
to, without going outside their houses.” 

“It sure would be fine,” said Joe, a little puzzled 
as to what Bob was driving at but loyally cer¬ 
tain that, whatever the idea, his chum was sure 
to be in the right. 

“I don’t get you at all,” complained Jimmy, 
finally deciding that he really should have left 
that last doughnut alone, there was beginning to 
be a mighty uncomfortable sensation somewhere 
in the center of his being. “Radio probably 
would be a fine thing for cripples but, gee, we’re 
not cripples—yet.” 

“Who said anything about us?” demanded Bob, 
disgruntled. “I never said we were cripples, 
did I?” - 

“Well, spill the rest of it,” groaned Jimmy as 
he shifted from one side to the other in the hope 
of relieving the pain that gnawed at his vitals. 
“What’s the big idea?” 

“I was wondering,” said Bob, sitting up and 
growing excited as his vague plan began to take 
shape, “if we couldn’t get some of these poor 
folks together and give ’em the time of their 
lives.” 

The boys stared at him and Herb shook his 
head sorrowfully. 

“Gone plain loco,” he explained to the other 
boys, with a significant tap on his forehead. 


160 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS. 

“They say life’s pretty hard inside that asylum, 
too.” 

“Loco, nothing!” cried Joe, beginning to un¬ 
derstand Bob’s idea and growing excited in his 
turn. “You’re the one that’s loco, you poor fish, 
only you haven’t sense enough to know it. 
[Where would we give this entertainment, Bob? 
At your house?” he asked, turning to his chum 
•while Herb grinned at the suffering Jimmy. 

“Now, they’ve both got it,” he said dolefully. 

“Well, I wish ’em joy of it,” grumbled Jimmy. 

“Why, I thought of that at first,” Bob said in 
reply to Joe’s question. “Only with our instru¬ 
ments we have to use the ear pieces so that only 
a few could listen at a time.” 

“That would be pretty slow for the rest of 
athem,” Joe finished understandingly. 

Bob nodded eagerly. 

“Sure thing,” he said, sitting up and flinging 
jfche hair back out of his eyes. “I knew you’d 
catch the idea, Joe.” 

“Say, I know what we’ll do,” broke in HerB 
excitedly. “How about taking all these poor 
lame ducks to Doctor Dale’s house. He has a 
horn attachment-” 

“And they could all hear the concert at once! 
Hooray!” cried Jimmy, momentarily forgetting 
his pain in excitement. “You’ve got a pretty 
good head piece after all, Bob.” 



A SPLENDID INSPIRATION 161 

“Yes, and a minute ago you were laughing at 
me,” said Bob, aggrieved. 

“Well, say,” cried Joe, who was ever a boy 
of action, “what’s the matter with our getting 
busy on this right?away? Let’s go and see Doc¬ 
tor Dale-” 

“What’s your big rush?” Jimmy protested 
feebly, appalled by the prospect of immediate ac¬ 
tion. “There’s a lot of things we don’t know 
about this business yet.” 

“Sure, sit down and talk it over,” urged Herb 
placatingly. “No use gettin’ all worked up over 
this thing, you know. Say,” he added, with a 
sudden light in his eye, “that reminds me of a 

joke I heard-” But a roar of protest from 

the other boys drowned his voice. 

“Gag him, some one, can’t you?” Joe’s voice 
was heard above the uproar. “The last joke he 
tried to work off on us was so old it had false 
teeth.” 

“Gee,” cried Herb, finally released and dis¬ 
gruntled. “It’s, plain to be seen real humor is 
wasted on this gang.” 

The boys let it go at that and eagerly plunged 
into a discussion of the proposed concert. 

“Who do we know that we can invite?” Joe 
asked practically. “The only 'shut in’ I know is 
poor old Joel Banks. He’s a fine old boy—went 
all through the Civil War with colors flying. 






162 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


He’s awfully old now, and so crippled with rheu¬ 
matism he can’t leave the house.” 

“Fine!” crowed Herb irrepressibly. “Here’s 
the first of our lame lucks.” 

“Joel Banks isn’t any lame duck! I’ll have 
you know that right now,” cried Joe hotly. 
“He’s one of the finest old gentlemen you ever 
want to see, and a hero at that. My dad says 
he would take his hat off to him any day in the 
week.” 

“All right, all right,” said Herb quickly. 
“Don’t go off the handle. I didn’t know you 
were so strong for the old boy. Who’s next on 
the list?” he asked, turning to Bob. 

“Why,” said Bob uncertainly, “I know quite a 
few poor kids who were crippled in that infantile 
paralysis epidemic-” 

“Sure, so do I,” broke in Jimmy, interested. 
“How about little Dick Winters and his sister?” 

“Fine!” cried Bob. “And I know a couple 
more I could pick up. Now let’s see! That 
makes—Gee, how many is it?” 

“About five,” Joe figured for him. “That’s 
enough, isn’t it.” 

Y-yes,” said Bob doubtfully. “Only your 
friend, the old war veteran, might not like to be 
squeezed in with a lot of kids, that way.” 

“I can fix that easily,” said Jimmy, impor- 



A SPLENDID INSPIRATION 163 

tantly. “What’s the matter with, asking Aunty 
Bixby?” 

“Who’s she?” asked Bob, with interest. 

“She’s an old lady, a sort of spinster, I guess,” 
Jimmy explained. “She lives all by herself, and 
I guess she gets kind of lonesome sometimes. 
She’s kind of deaf, though,” he added doubtfully. 

“Deaf!” repeated Bob, with a frown. “How 
can she listen to radio then, if she’s deaf?” 

“Oh, she has a trumpet,” Jimmy hastened to 
explain. “She sticks it in her ear like this,” and 
he made a gesture with his hands at the same 
time distorting his face into such a comical imita¬ 
tion of a deaf person doing his best to listen that 
the other boys shouted with laughter. “Oh, she 
can hear/all right,” Jimmy finished confidently. 

“Well, then, that makes six,” said Bob briskly. 
“Now we’ve got to make up our minds how we 
are going to get them to Doctor Dale s house. 

“Maybe dad will let me take the big car,” said 
Joe, his eyes shining with the sheer daring of the 
thought. “He is so crazy about radio himself 
these days that he will pretty nearly stand on his 
head to help anybody who takes an interest m 
it.” 

“I guess all our dads are bricks about radio,” 
declared Jimmy stoutly. “Mine said the other 
night he was mighty glad to have a youngster 


164 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


that had sense enough to pick out something really 
good to waste his time on.” 

“Waste, is right,” said Herb and then stared 
upward through the trees as Jimmy’s indignant 
stare was fixed upon him. 

“Stop scrapping, fellows,” said Bob, jumping 
to his feet and shaking off some of the twigs and 
damp earth that stuck to him. “Let’s get busy 
and find Doctor Dale. If he won’t let us have 
his house then this thing is all off.” 

“Swell chance, his not letting us have his 
house,” said Jimmy, getting painfully to his feet 
and shaking himself for all the world like a fat 
puppy dog. “He’s the greatest sport going.” 

“He sure is,” Bob agreed as they swung off 
at a great pace through the woods. “If it hadn’t 
been for him we probably wouldn’t have known 
anything about radio.” 

For a while they w^ere quiet, their minds busy 
with plans for perfecting their own radio outfits, 
their imaginations athrill with anticipation of the 
wonders they were yet to perform. 

Then Herb suddenly broke into their dreams 
with a very practical question. 

“Boys, I just happened to think-” 

“'Happened’ is right,” murmured Jimmy, 
with a grin. 

“Even if Joe does get his dad’s car,” Herb went 
on, unmoved, “it’s only a seven passenger, and 



A SPLENDID INSPIRATION 165 

there will be ten of us, counting the lame ducks” 

“Oh, that’ll be all right,” said Bob confidently. 
“We’ll hire a jitney of some sort down at the 
livery.” 

Thereupon they all plunged into a lively dis¬ 
cussion of plans for the concert, and so absorbed 
were they that they found themselves walking 
down Main Street before they had any idea that 
they were near the town. 

As they neared the big stone church on the 
corner they espied a familiar figure mounting 
the steps of the parsonage. 

“Hooray!” shouted Bob, starting on a run 
down the street. “Just in the nick of time, fel¬ 
lows. There’s the doctor himself!” 


CHAPTER XX 


THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES 

Doctor Dale heard their shout and waited 
with his genial smile till the four boys came pant¬ 
ing up to him. 

“We’ve got a sort of idea, Doctor Dale,” ex¬ 
plained Bob, stammering in his eagerness. “And 
—and we would like to speak to you about it if 
you have time.” 

“I can always spare some for you boys,” the 
doctor assured him heartily. “Come on in, fel¬ 
lows, and let’s hear about this idea. Something 
connected with radio, I suppose?” 

“Yes, sir,” answered Bob, as Doctor Dale 
opened the parsonage door and the boys crowded 
eagerly after him into the cozy study. 

The doctor listened with interest while Bob 
outlined the plan to him, assisted by frequent in¬ 
terruptions from the other boys. 

And if the chums had expected enthusiasm 
from this good friend of theirs, they were cer¬ 
tainly not disappointed. The doctor was jubilant 
166 


THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES 


i6y 


over the idea and readily consented to giving his 
time unreservedly for the purpose of making the 
affair a great success. 

They set the date of the concert for the next 
day, which was Saturday, and added the names 
of several others to the list of those to be invited. 
A few minutes later the minister’s callers de¬ 
parted gleefully, a warmer feeling than ever in 
their hearts for Doctor Amory Dale. 

“You’ve got the right idea, boys,” the latter 
called after them, standing at the top of the steps 
to see them off. “Give happiness to others and 
you will find true happiness for yourselves.” 

So far everything had gone swimmingly, and 
when the next morning the boys arose to find the 
sun shining brightly they thought that the fates 
had been almost too good to them. 

“Something sure will happen before night,” 
Jimmy muttered gloomily, as he made his way 
down to the dining room, from which issued a 
tempting aroma of bacon. “It’s all too good to 
be true.” But then, Jimmy always did feel 
grumpy before breakfast. 

The boys each found his own family as en¬ 
thusiastic as Doctor Dale had been about the 
great plan, and Bob’s mother even hugged him 
impulsively as she passed behind his chair. Bob 
was almost ashamed of the happiness that welled 
in his heart. Of course a fellow of fifteen was 


168 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

too big to be hugged as a general thing, but, some¬ 
how, one’s mother was different. 

After breakfast he started down town to* see 
about the jitney, met Joe on the way, and the 
two boys went on together, talking excitedly of 
their preparations. 

“Dad says I can have the big car and the garage 
tnan will run it,” Joe informed him gleefully. 
“Gee, I was never so surprised in my life. All 
he said was ‘take it, my son, and Heaven grant 
you never want it for a worse purpose/ Great 
old sport, dad is.” 

“Gee, that’s great,” said Bob. “Now if we 
can only find some old bus that looks as if it will 
stand up for a mile or two, everything will be 
dandy.” 

After much kicking of tires and anxious ex¬ 
amination, the boys did actually manage to find 
a Ford machine that promised, with more or less 
reservations, to do its duty, and, after engaging 
it with a driver for one-thirty that afternoon, 
they walked importantly from the shop, much 
to the amusement of the garage man. 

“Fine set of kids,” he muttered, shaking his 
head admiringly as he returned to the machine 
that he was repairing. “Always full of pep and 
ginger whenever you see ’em. They’ll go 1 a long 
way, those kids will.” 

In spite of various gloomy predictions, at one- 


THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES 169 

thirty that afternoon there was still not a cloud 
in the sky and the breath of the sun smote down¬ 
ward almost as hotly as it would in midsummer. 

Gayly the four boys started off in the two cars, 
eager to pick up the poor shut-ins of their ac¬ 
quaintance and give them the time of their 
lives. 

Their first stop was at the lonely little cottage 
of Joel Banks, Civil War veteran. His house¬ 
keeper let them in, a quaint little woman with pink 
cheeks and white hair and a spotless white apron 
tied around her comfortable waist. 

When the boys made known their errand to 
her she departed in a flutter of pleased surprise 
to prepare “the colonel” for his treat. In a few 
moments more the old gentleman appeared, lean¬ 
ing heavily upon the housekeeper, a stout cane 
grasped stiffly in his knotted fingers. 

He gazed at the boys for a moment with dim 
eyes, then suddenly a gleam shot into them and 
he smiled. 

“Reckoning on giving me a treat, are you, 
boys?” he asked. Something must have caught 
in his throat, for he cleared it hastily. “Well, 
that’s mighty fine of you. Been a long time since 
anybody took that much interest in old Joel 
Banks.” 

Joe introduced his friends in hurried, boy fash¬ 
ion, and a moment later they were helping the old 


170 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 


gentleman out of the house and into the auto¬ 
mobile, at the same time pouring into his inter¬ 
ested ears such tales of the marvels of radio te¬ 
lephony that it was a wonder they did not talk the 
veteran deaf. 

In the confusion Bob managed to whisper in¬ 
structions to Joe. 

“We’ll put the kids in your car,” he said hur¬ 
riedly. “There will be more room for them, and 
then they won’t bother the old folks. And have 
the man drive slowly,” he added. “This old bus 
isn’t long on springs, and I don’t want to jolt ’em 
up too much. Take it easy, Joe.” 

“All right,” agreed the latter, and a moment 
later they were gliding cautiously over the smooth 
roads on their way to the home of little Dick 
Winters and his sister Rose. 

The children were deliriously happy at the pros¬ 
pect of a little change and excitement, and there 
were tears in their mother’s eyes as she helped 
the boys lift the children into the comfortable 
back seat of the Atwood car. 

‘God bless those boys!” whispered the woman, 
as the two cars sped away down the road. 

Still further on the boys picked up several more 
crippled boys and girls, and then turned off a hot 
and dusty side road to call for Aunty Bixby. 

Secretly the boys were a little afraid of this 


THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES 


171 


formidable old woman, and they wondered rather 
nervously whether or not she would break up the 

party. 

When Jimmy, who was sitting beside Bob in 
the flivver, pointed out the white, ivy-grown 
house where the old woman lived, Bob nudged 
him nervously. 

“Remember, you’ve got to take care of her,” 
he said, noticing that Jimmy himself looked rather 
worried. “You were the one who spoke about 
her-” 

“Gee, you don’t need to rub it in, do you?” 
growled the fat boy as he squeezed himself 
through the door and stepped gingerly onto the 
dusty road. “Better let me go in alone. She 
might get scared if she saw the whole bunch of 
us, and maybe she wouldn’t come at all.” 

In his heart Bob thought that that might not 
be such a terrible thing, but he kept quiet. A fel¬ 
low ought to be thankful for small blessings. 
Think how much worse it would be if he, and 
not Jimmy, were forced to break the news to 
Aunty Bixby. 

The big car came to a stop beside the Ford, 
and all the boys watched with interest as Jimmy 
ascended the steps of the porch, rang the bell, 
and a moment later, disappeared into the house. 

But as the time passed and he still failed to 



172 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

emerge they began to get a little uneasy about 
him. Finally Bob let himself out of the car and 
went to consult with Joe and Herb. 

They had just about decided, to make a raid 
upon the house and rescue poor Jimmy when the 
subject of discussion himself appeared, looking 
very red and flustered and out of sorts. 

The boys were about to make a concerted rush 
upon him, but he waved them back violently. 

“She’s coming,” he said in a hoarse tone some¬ 
where between a whisper and a shout. “Get 
back there, you fellows.” 

They got back just in time to see Aunty Bixby 
herself emerge. Bob gave one look and his heart 
sank into his boots. 

“Gee!” he muttered and there was anger in his 
eye. “Just wait till I get Doughnuts Plummer 
alone somewhere.” 

Meanwhile Aunty Bixby was limping down 
upon them with all sails set, her stiff silk dress 
billowing out about her and her little hat set se¬ 
curely on her determined head, while Jimmy 
puffed along behind her. 

With rare presence of mind Bob jumped out, 
opened the door of the car and offered to assist 
the old woman. His reward was a cold stare 
that made him feel like a baby caught with the 
jelly jar. 

“No, thank you, young man,” said Aunty 


THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES 


m 

Bixby. “I am quite capable of climbing into this 
—er—horrible thing, unassisted.” 

Bob shot a wild glare at Jimmy, who hovered 
in the background, but at the look of utter misery 
on the latter’s face, even Bob’s hard heart was 
softened. 

As the old woman rustled into the car Joel 
Banks moved over courteously, but there was a 
gleam of amusement in his eye that puzzled Bob. 
How could he know that the old gentleman was 
having the time of his life? 

Bob nudged Jimmy, bidding him do his duty 
and introduce the two old people, and, to do poor 
Jimmy justice, he really did do his best. But 
Aunty Bixby could not get the name straight, 
even with tlie assistance of her ear trumpet. 

“Not that it matters in the least,” said the old 
woman irritably, settling back with a grim ex¬ 
pression on her face. “Now if you will take my 
advice and get started, young man, I would be 
very much obliged to you.” 

As the chauffeur felt for the starter and threw 
in the clutch Bob was desperately conscious of 
the old woman’s accusing gaze on the back of his 
head. 

“Say,” he growled at Jimmy, huddled miser¬ 
ably in the seat beside him, “you sure did play a 
bonehead trick this time. She’ll just spoil the 
fun for all of us.” 


r» 


174 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

“Ah, cut it out,” retorted Jimmy, wriggling 
uncomfortably. “She really isn’t half bad once 
you get to know her.” 

“Neither is poison,” snorted Bob, as the car 
chugged wearily once or twice, then settled down 
to business. “If we ever get out of this alive, 
we’ll be lucky.” 

However, maybe it was the sunshine, or maybe 
it was Joel Banks’ conversation that wrought the 
change in her. Be that as it may, Aunty Bixby 
unbent surprisingly in the next few minutes. 
Bob and Jimmy kept an interested eye on the back 
seat where Joel Banks patiently shouted dry 
jokes into the old woman’s trumpet to the accom¬ 
paniment of the latter’s amused cackle. 

“You see!” Jimmy said proudly. “I told you 
she wasn't half bad if you only got to know her.” 

And then, just when they were within half a 
mile of their destination the miserable thing hap¬ 
pened. There was a sharp explosion and an 
ominous whistling of escaping air. 

The driver stopped the car, got out and re¬ 
garded the flat tire with a frown of despair. 

“Now what’s the matter ?” demanded Aunty 
Bixby, irritably adding, with an air almost of 
triumph: “I always did say I hated the dratted 
things.” 

How the chauffeur managed to get that tire 


THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES 


175 


changed the boys never afterward knew. Some¬ 
how or other he accomplished it and finally the 
car reached Doctor Dale’s house without any 
further mishaps. 

They found the doctor awaiting them, and in 
his courteous way he welcomed the guests of the 
afternoon, welcoming each one in turn and help¬ 
ing the radio boys to see that each one was made 
as comfortable as possible. 

Little Dick Winters and Rose and even the 
older crippled boys were a trifle awed by the 
dignity of the occasion and the strangeness of 
their surroundings, but beneath the boys’ merry 
joking and the doctor’s friendly manner they 
soon got rid of this feeling and prepared to enjoy 
themselves fa the limit. 

Mr. Joel Banks was intensely interested in the 
radio apparatus, asking intelligent questions, to 
which the boys eagerly replied. So interested 
were they in the mechanical end that Dr. Dale 
finally informed them that if they expected to 
listen in at any concert that afternoon they had 
better get to it without further delay. 

Aunty Bixby, listening anxiously through her 
ear trumpet, nodded emphatically at this 
suggestion. 

“Yes,” she said in her high, chronically irritable 
voice, “let’s get along with it. I want to see 


176 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 

what that horn-shaped contraption can do. 
Looks to me like nothin’ so much’s an old fash¬ 
ioned phony graph.” 

“It’s far more wonderful than any phono¬ 
graph,” the doctor told her good-naturedly. 
Then turning to Bob, directed: “Let her go. 
Bob. It’s just time to catch that concert in 
Pittsburgh.” 

Bob obeyed, and then the fun began. For an 
hour that seemed only a minute in length all lis¬ 
tened to a concert of exquisite music both vocal 
and instrumental, a concert given by some of the 
world’s great artists and plucked from the air 
for their benefit. 

Once Aunty Bixby dropped her trumpet and 
was heard to murmur something like “drat the 
thing!” But Jimmy gruntingly got down on his 
knees and retrieved the instrument from its hid¬ 
ing place under a chair. Then, finding she had 
missed part of a violin selection, the old woman 
exclaimed irritably: 

“There, I missed that. Have them play it 
over again!” 

The boys looked at each other, then looked sud¬ 
denly away, trying their best to control the cor¬ 
ners of their mouths. 

However, when the concert was over and the 
last soprano solo, flowing so truly through the 
horn-shaped amplifier, died away into silence they 


THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES 


177 


saw that Aunty Bixby’s bright old eyes were 
wet. 

“Drat the thing!” she said, feeling blindly for 
a handkerchief. “Never heard tell o’ such fool¬ 
ishness, making a body cry about nothing!” 

Joel Banks sat with a knotted hand over his 
eyes, dreaming old dreams of days long past, days 
when he was young and athrill with the joy of 
living. 

“How about a little dance music now?” asked 
Bob, glancing over at Doctor Dale, who nodded 
his consent. 

“Surely,” he replied. “We have to have some 
dance music nowadays to please the young folks.” 

The little cripples received this suggestion with 
enthusiasm and fairly shouted with delight as 
the snappy tune of the latest fox trot floated into 
the room. 

“That's the stuff!” shouted Dick Winters, and 
the boys grinned at him. 

Later they had a minstrel show that sent them 
all into gales of laughter. Joel Banks and Aunty 
Bixby were as sorry as the young folks when it 
was over. 

Then suddenly, without warning, the stirring 
strains of the Star Spangled Banner filled the 
room, played by a master band. Suddenly, as 
though by some common instinct, all eyes were 
turned upon Joel Banks. There was a light in 


o 


178 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 


the old veteran’s eyes, a straightening of his 
whole sagging figure. 

He tried to rise, faltered, felt two pairs of 
strong young arms lifting him, supporting him, 
as Bob and Joe sprang to his aid. He stood 
there, his hand at stiff salute, in his old eyes the 
fire of battle, until the last stirring note died away 
and the music was still. Then he sank into a 
chair, shaking his old head feebly. 

“Those were the days!” he muttered under his 
breath. “Those were the good old days!” 

And so the concert finally came to a close and 
the boys took their happily weary guests home 
through the mellow late afternoon, promising to 
do the whole thing over some day. 

“They sure seemed to enjoy themselves,” said 
Bob as the radio boys started toward home. 
“Aunty Bixby is a nice old lady, and as for Joel 
Banks-” 

“Say, isn’t he a dandy?” Joe demanded, and 
this time Herb and Jimmy chimed in: 

“He sure is!” 



CHAPTER XXI 


THE VOICE THAT STUTTERED 

The following Saturday evening the radio 
boys were once more assembled at Bob’s house. 
They were in high spirits, having prepared all 
their lessons for the following Monday, and were 
out for an evening’s fun with their radio outfit. 
It was too early for the regular concert to start, 
but they were experimenting with the set, shift¬ 
ing the sliders around on the tuning coil in an 
effort to catch some of the messages sent out by 
near-by amateurs. It was sometimes great fun 
to listen in on these conversations, and often they 
wished that they had a sending set so that they 
could answer some of the remarks passed out by 
the ambitious senders. 

For some time they had picked up nothing of 
interest, and were wishing for the time to come 
when the concert was to start, when suddenly a 
voice they had never heard before came out of the 
air. The boys gazed at each other in astonish- 
179 




180 THE RADIO BOYS 1 FIRST WIRELESS 


ment for a few moments, and then broke into 
irrepressible laughter. For the voice belonged to 
a man who stuttered terribly, and the effect was 
ludicrous indeed. The strange voice rasped and 
stuttered its difficult way along, until some one 
who possessed a sending as well as a receiving 
set, interrupted. 

“Hey there !" it said. “You're engine's miss¬ 
ing, old timer. Let it cool off a bit and then try 
again." 

This was evidently heard by the stutterer, for 
he became excited, and that did not help him 
much. 

“S-s-shut up, y-y-you big b-b-boob," he finally 
managed to get out, in an infuriated tone. 

“I may be a boob, but I can talk straight, any¬ 
way," replied the amateur. 

This so infuriated the stuttering man that he 
was absolutely unable to say anything for a few 
moments, while the boys, with much merriment, 
waited expectantly for the forthcoming answer. 

“S-s-s-shut up, w-w-will you?" exploded the 
unfortunate stutterer at last. “J-j-just you 

w-w-w-w-" but he was unable to finish the 

sentence until he stopped and gave vent to a long 
whistle, after which he was able to proceed. 

At the sound of the whistle Bob suddenly 
stopped laughing and sat up straight in his chair. 

“Say, fellows!” he exclaimed, “do you remem- 


THE VOICE THAT STUTTERED 181 

ber what Herb told us about the man named Dan 
Cassey?” 

“Jerusalem 1” exclaimed Joe, “I remember Herb 
said he stuttered and had to whistle to go on, 
and if that doesn’t describe this bird I’ll eat my 
hat!” 

Jimmy and Herb himself caught the idea, at 
the same time, and they gazed speculatively at 
each other. There was more recrimination be¬ 
tween the stutterer and his tormentor, and the 
boys listened attentively, hoping to get some clue 
to the whereabouts of the afflicted one’s station. 
But they could get no hint of this, and finally the 
voice ceased, leaving them full of hope but with 
little that was definite to found their suspi¬ 
cions on. 

“Of course, it may not mean anything at all,” 
said Bob. “This Dan Cassey isn’t the only man 
in the world who stutters.” 

“No, but there can’t be many who are as bad 
as he is,” said Joe, grinning at the recollection, 
even though his mind was occupied, with more 
serious thoughts. “But it will certainly be worth 
our while to try to locate this person and find out 
what name he answers to.” 

The others were of the same opinion, and they 
listened for some repetition of the voice in the 
hope that its possessor might drop some clue to 
his identity, but although they missed most of the 


182 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


concert by trying to catch the talk of the object 
of their interest, they heard no further word of 
him that evening nor for many more to come. 

The next morning but one when Bob joined 
his companions it was plain to see that he was 
bursting with news. 

“Say, fellows,” was his salutation, “did any 
of you read in the morning papers of the big 
Radio Show that is opening up in New York 
.City?” 

They had to confess that they were innocent of 
any such knowledge. 

“It opens to-morrow,” went on Bob. “They 
say it’s going to be one of the biggest things that 
ever happened. A regular rip-roaring, honest- 
to-goodness show. They’ll have all the latest im¬ 
provements in radio sets and all kinds of inven¬ 
tions and lectures by men who know all about it, 
and automobiles that run by wireless without any 
drivers-” 

“For the love of Pete,” interrupted Joe, “go 
a little easy and let us take it in a little at a 
time. Any one would think you were the barker 
at a sideshow. Where is this wonderful thing 
to be?” 

“On the roof of one of the big New York ho¬ 
tels,” answered Bob. “I forget the name just 
now, but it’s one of the biggest in the city. What 
do you say, fellows, to taking it in? We ought 



THE VOICE THAT STUTTERED 183 

to get all sorts of ideas that will help us in making 
our sets.” 

“Count me in,” replied Joe promptly. “That 
is, if my folks will let me go, and I think they 
will.” 

“Don’t leave out little Jimmy,” remarked that 
individual. 

“Me too,” added Herb. “That is, if dad will 
see it the same way I do.” 

“I guess our folks won’t kick,” Bob conjec¬ 
tured confidently. “I notice that they’re getting 
almost as much interested in the game as we are. 
Besides we won’t have to stay in the city over 
night. The show’s in the afternoon as well as 
the evening and we can be home before ten 
o’clock.” , 

“We’ll put it up to them anyway,” replied Joe. 

They did “put it up” to their parents with such 
effect that their consent was readily obtained, 
though strict promises were exacted that they 
would spend only the afternoon in the city and 
take the early evening train for home. 

It was a hilarious group that made their way 
to the city the next day, full of eager expecta¬ 
tions of the wonders to be seen, expectations that 
were realized to the full. 

From the moment the boys crowded into the 
jammed elevators and were shot to the enclosed 
roof in which the exhibition was held they en- 


0 


184 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


joyed one continuous round of pleasure and ex¬ 
citement. The place was thronged, and, as a 
matter of fact, many late comers were turned 
away for lack of room. But the boys wound in 
and out like eels, and there were very few things 
worth seeing that eluded their eager eyes. Im¬ 
pressions crowded in upon them so thick and fast 
that it was not until later that they were fully 
able to appreciate the wonders that were being 
displayed for their benefit. 

They listened to talks from men skilled in 
radio work, they wandered about tO' the many 
booths where information was given about every¬ 
thing connected with wireless, they studied vari¬ 
ous types of coils, transformers, vacuum tubes, 
switches, aerials, terminals, everything in fact that 
ambitious young amateurs could wish to know. 

There was the identical apparatus with its mar¬ 
velously sensitive receiver, which, while installed 
in Scotland, had correctly registered signals from 
an amateur radio station in America. 

A little later they stood entranced in the Con¬ 
vention Hall before a new, beautifully modeled 
radio amplifier, so massive that the volume of 
music it poured forth actually seemed to cause 
vibration in the walls of the great room in which 
they stood. 

One of the most interesting features was the 
radio-controlled automobile. The crowd before 


THE VOICE THAT STUTTERED 185 

this almost incredible invention was so dense that 
the operator was handicapped in his demon¬ 
stration. 

The car was about seven feet in length, with 
a cylindrical mass of wire rising about six feet 
above its body. It was upon this that the 
swiftly moving car caught signals from antennae 
stretched across the hall. The boys watched, 
fascinated, as the inventor, opening and closing 
the switches in its mechanism by use of a radio 
wave of one hundred and thirty-five metres in 
length, caused the small car to back out of its 
garage and run about the hall without a driver, 
delivering papers and messages, afterward return¬ 
ing to the garage. 

Then they saw the transmitters that could shoot 
radio messages into space, and hung entranced 
over the moving pictures of what happens in a 
vacuum tube. Nothing escaped them, and they 
“did” the show thoroughly, so thoroughly in fact 
that at the end they were, as Joe expressed it, 
“all in.” 

“Gee, I knew that show was going to be great,” 
remarked Bob happily, as they were returning 
home on the train. “But I didn’t have any idea 
that it was going to be such a whale.” 

“It was a pippin,” agreed Joe, as he snuggled 
back still further in his seat. 

Jimmy sighed gustily. 


186 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


“What’s the matter, Doughnuts?” asked Bob. 

“I was just pitying,” replied Jimmy, “the poor 
boobs who didn’t see it.” 

“And that’s no joke!” said Joe. “Seeing all 
those things is going to be a big help toward 
winning those prizes.” 

“Who said I was joking?” retorted Jimmy. 
“I wasn’t. L That show was the dandiest thing I 
ever saw.” 


CHAPTER XXII 


THE STOLEN SET 

Meanwhile, Bob, Joe and Jimmy were work¬ 
ing like beavers on their prize sets, and were mak¬ 
ing great progress. Mr. Ferberton’s offer had 
aroused great interest in the town, and several 
other boys were working for the coveted prizes. 
The knowledge of this only spurred the radio 
boys to greater efforts, and they began to acquire 
a deeper insight into the mysteries of radio work 
with every day that passed. They began to talk 
so learnedly of condensers and detectors that 
Herb wished more than once that he had started 
to make a set of his own, and he was at last 
driven in self defense to study up on the subject 
so as not to be left too far behind. 

Almost two weeks had passed since they first 
started work on the prize sets when one evening 
Doughnuts came rushing into Bob’s workroom 
with woe writ large on his round countenance. 

“What do you think, Bob!” he burst out. 
“Some crook has stolen my set,” 

187 


188 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


“Stolen your set!” echoed Bob. “What in the 
world do you mean?” 

“Just that,” went on poor Jimmy. “I had it 
in my father’s shop back of the house. I was 
working on it last night, and when I went out 
this evening, it was gone.” 

“Was anything else stolen?” asked Bob. 

“No. That’s the funny thing about it,” re¬ 
plied Jimmy. “Nothing was touched but my 
set.” 

“Then it looks to me as though Buck Looker 
or one of his crowd had taken it,” said Bob, after 
thinking a few minutes. “You know they have 
it in for us, and they’d do anything to harm us.” 

“Yes, but if that’s so, why should they steal 
my set instead of yours or Joe’s?” argued 
Jimmy. 

“Probably because it was easier to steal yours,” 
said Bob. “We keep our sets in the house, while 
yours, being in a shed at the back, would be a 
lot easier to get away with.” 

“Jimminy crickets! I’ll bet you’re right,” ex¬ 
claimed Jimmy. “It would be just the kind of 
dirty trick they’d be likely to play, too.” 

“If it’s Buck Looker and his crowd that’s re¬ 
sponsible for this, we’ll have your set back or 
know the reason why,” said Bob, throwing down 
his tools. “Let’s go around and get the others, 
and we’ll have a council of war.” 


THE STOLEN SET 


189 


A peculiar whistle outside their friends’ houses 
brought them out at once, and when they were 
all together Jimmy told them about his misfor¬ 
tune. They were as indignant as Bob, and had 
little doubt that Buck Looker was the author of 
the outrage. 

“It’s dollars to doughnuts that gang’s got it,” 
said Bob. “Now, when a thing needs to be done, 
it’s usually best to do it right away. We’ve got 
to get Jimmy’s set back, and I’ve got an idea 
where we can find it.” 

“Where?” they all asked in chorus. 

“Well, you know that crowd often hang out 
in that shack back of Terry Mooney’s houses— 
the place that his father built to keep an auto¬ 
mobile in, and then could never get enough money 
to buy the automobile. They spend a lot of their 
time there. And if they’ve taken Jimmy’s outfit, 
that’s the place they’d naturally keep it. They 
wouldn’t want to take it into any of their homes, 
because then their folks would likely find out 
about it and make them give it up.” 

“Gee, I believe you’re right!” exclaimed Joe. 
“Let’s go there right away and accuse them 
of it.” 

“Better yet, let’s go there and take it away 
from them,” proposed Bob, with a grim set to 
his mouth. “Are you with me?” 

For answer they all started off in the direction 


1 9 0 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS. 

of Terry Mooney’s house, and as they went, Bob 
outlined a plan of attack. 

“We’ll scout around first, and see if they’re 
in the place,” he said. “If they are, we may be 
able to get a look inside and see if there is any 
sign of Jimmy’s outfit. If they’ve got it, we 
can decide the best way to take it away from them 
after we get there.” 


CHAPTER XXIII 


BATTERING IN THE DOOR 

Ten minutes of brisk walking brought the 
radio boys to their goal. The Mooney family in¬ 
habited a large but dilapidated house, in the rear 
of which was the small building that the head of 
the Mooney family had erected in a moment when 
his enthusiasm had far outrun his bank account. 
He had never been able to buy a car to put in the 
building, and his son and his cronies had found it 
an ideal place to meet, smoke cheap cigarettes, 
and plot mischief. 

As they neared this shack, the radio boys kept 
in the shadows and approached noiselessly, it 
being Bob’s plan to take the gang by surprise, if 
possible. Besides, he wanted to be absolutely 
sure that Jimmy’s stolen set was in the building 
before making any further move. 

Noiselessly as shadows, the boys crept up to 
the shack until they were close enough to hear 
voices inside. They could easily recognize Buck 
Looker’s arrogant voice, and at times the whining 
replies of Terry and Carl. 

191 


192 


THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 


There was only one small window in the build¬ 
ing, and that was covered by a square of cloth. 
At the end of the shack opposite the window were 
two large doors, both closed. An electric light 
cord had been strung from the house, supplying 
current to one or more lamps inside the shack. 
The four radio boys prowled about the building, 
trying to find some place from which they could 
get a view of the interior. At last Joe found a 
place where a crack in a plank allowed them to 
see in. 

All three of the gang were inside, seated on 
rickety chairs about a rough pine table. And on 
this table, sure enough, was the missing radio 
outfit! 

Jimmy clenched his fists when he saw this, and 
was for an immediate attack. But Bob had a 
more crafty scheme in his head. 

“Here’s a better stunt,” he said, drawing his 
friends off to a little distance so that they could 
talk without running the chance of being over¬ 
heard. 

“If we break in on them, they might make 
trouble for us later,” said Bob. “But if we put 
their light out first, we’ll be able to get hold of 
Jimmy’s outfit without their really knowing who’s 
doing it.” 

“Cut the electric light cord, you mean?” said 
Joe, getting the idea like a flash. 


BATTERING IN THE DOOR 


193 


“That’s the idea,” said Bob. “Suppose you 
cut the cord, Jimmy, and the second you do, we’ll 
all rush those front doors. They’ve probably got 
’em locked but if we land heavily enough I don’t 
think that will stop us. I’ll make for the table 
and grab Jim’s outfit, and when you hear me 
whistle twice you’ll know I’ve got it, and we’ll 
get out. They’ll probably be fighting each other 
in the dark for a while before they even know 
we’re gone.” 

“Bob, I take off my hat to you,” said Joe ad¬ 
miringly. “We’ll work it just as you say.” 

Doughnuts had a pair of wire cutters with him, 
which he had used when working on his set. Si¬ 
lent as ghosts, the four friends crept back to the 
shack, and Jimmy carefully separated the two 
wires of the cable and caught one of them be¬ 
tween the jaws of his cutter. 

“When the light goes out, we rush,” whispered 
Bob. “Give us a few seconds to get set, Jimmy, 
and then cut!” 

Bob, Joe, and Herb withdrew about ten feet 
from the big front doors and waited tensely for 
the light to go out. 

A scarcely audible click, and the shack was 
plunged in darkness. 

Like projectiles shot from a gun, the boys 
hurled themselves against the doors, landing with 
a crashing impact that shattered the lock into 


194 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

fragments and tore one of the doors bodily from 
its rusty hinges. Shouts of terror rose from the 
panic-stricken bullies inside, taken completely by 
surprise with no idea of what had come upon 
them. The radio boys scattered them head over 
heels as they made for the table, and the shack 
was a pandemonium of shouts, cries, and the 
crash of overturned chairs. It was the work of 
only a few seconds for Bob to reach Jimmy’s 
radio set, and having secured this, he whistled 
twice to signify success, and made for the door. 

Meanwhile, as he had foreseen, the bullies, 
tangled in a heap on the floor, were grappling 
with each other, pounding away at whatever came 
handiest to their fists. The radio boys, having 
got what they came after, left the gang struggling 
in the dark, and made their way back to Jimmy’s 
house, doubled up with laughter at times, as they 
thought of the ludicrous discomfiture of their 
foes. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


ON THE TRAIL 

“Gosh !” exclaimed Herb, wiping tears o£ mer¬ 
riment from his eyes. “I’ll never forget this 
night if I live to be a hundred. Oh, my, but 
that was rich! ,, 

“Those fellows will learn after a while that it 
doesn't pay to get gay with this bunch," said Joe. 
“I think we let them off easy for stealing Dough¬ 
nuts’ outfit, as it is. We might have landed them 
a few swift ones while we were there." 

“They saved us even that trouble," Bob pointed 
out. “They were punching each other hard 
enough to suit any one." 

“That’s right," said Joe, laughing. “I guess 
by this time they’re sorry they stole that set." 

“I’m mighty grateful to you fellows for helping 
me get this back," said Jimmy, looking lovingly 
at his set, which had escaped with hardly a 
scratch. “When! I found it was gone, I pretty 
nearly gave it up for lost." 

“ 'One for all and all for one,’ " quoted Bob. 

195 


196 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

“We’ll teach Buck Looker and his set to let us 
alone, if it’s possible to teach them anything. 
But I suppose we might as well run along now, 
because it’s getting pretty late.” 

“I happen to know that there’s a big pan of 
rice pudding in the ice box,” said Jimmy. “It 
may be late, but it’s never too late for that, is it?” 

“Lead us to it!” the other three chanted in 
unison, and in a short time the rice pudding was 
only a memory. Then the boys said good-night 
and parted, each to his own home, well satisfied 
“with the result of their adventure. 

Bob and Joe were walking down Main Street 
the next day, when they met Buck Looker and 
Carl Lutz, both looking very much the worse for 
wear. 

Joe stopped and gazed at them in 1 apparent 
astonishment. 

“Why, what have you fellows been doing, any¬ 
way?” he inquired. “You look as though you 
had had an argument with a steam roller.” 

“Yes, and the steam roller must have won,” 
grinned Bob. 

“You know well enough what happened to us,” 
growled Buck Looker malignantly. “If ever you 
fellows come around our clubhouse again, we’ll 
make you wish you hadn’t.” 

“Clubhouse?” queried Joe Innocently. “What 


ON THE TRAIL 197 

does he mean, Bob? I didn’t know he and Lutz 
had a clubhouse.” 

“I mean that garage back of the Mooney’s 
place,” said Buck irately. “That’s our club¬ 
house, and you fellows had better not try any 
rough house there again, or there’ll be trouble.” 

“Oh, I know the place he means,” said Bob, 
after making a pretence of puzzled thinking. 
“He means that tumbled-down shack where Mr. 
Mooney keeps his garden tools. I’m sure we’d 
never want to go near a place like that, would 
we, Joe?” 

“Of course not,” said Joe. “I wouldn’t ask a 
respectable dog to go near that place. 

Looker and Lutz had been growing angrier all 
the time during this dialogue, but after their re¬ 
cent experiences with the radio boys they did not 
quite dare resort to open hostilities. But if looks 
could have killed, Bob and Joe would have 
dropped dead on the spot. 

“If you’ve got anything to say, now’s the time 
to say it,” said Bob, gazing steadily at the bullies 
with a look in, his eyes that made them shift 
uneasily. 

“We’re in a big hurry, or we’d tend to you 
right now,” blustered Buck. “Come on, Carl. 
We’ll fix them some other time.” 

“No time like the present, you know,” said Joe. 


198 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

But the two bullies had little inclination for 
a fair fight, as they had a pretty shrewd suspicion 
of how they would fare in that event. With ugly 
sidewise looks they passed on, leaving Bob and 
Joe in possession of the field. 

“They’re beginning to think we’re bad medi¬ 
cine,” said Joe. “A little more training, Bob, 
and they’ll even be afraid to talk back to us.” 

“Looks that way, doesn’t it,” said Bob, 
laughing. 

The two radio boys went on to their destina¬ 
tion, which was the hardware store, where they 
both wanted to buy some wire and other supplies. 
What was their surprise, when they went inside, 
to find Frank Brandon, the radio inspector, talk¬ 
ing to the proprietor. 

As the boys entered, Brandon glanced at them, 
and then, as recognition came into his eyes, he 
extended his hand. 

“Hello, there!” he exclaimed. “How have you 
been since I saw you? How’s the wireless com¬ 
ing on ?” 

“It’s O K,” said Bob. “We’re both trying for 
the Ferberton prize, you know.” 

“That’s fine,” said Brandon heartily. “The 
prizes are to be given out pretty soon, aren’t 
they?” 

“Yes. And we’re both hoping that if one of 
us doesn’t get it, the other will,” said Joe. 


ON THE TRAIL 


199 


“If neither one gets it, it won’t be anything 
against you,” said Brandon. “I hear there are 
a lot of sets entered, and some of the fellows who 
have made them have been at the game a lot 
longer than you have.” 

“We’re doing a lot of hoping, anyway,” said 
Bob. “Are they keeping you pretty busy these 
days?” 

“I should say so,” said the radio inspector. 
“There’s one fellow in particular that I’m having 
a lot of trouble with. I’ve got his location ap¬ 
proximately, but in the neighborhood where he 
should be I haven’t been able to locate any an¬ 
tennae to indicate the presence of a radio station. 
Usually it’s easy enough, but this fellow seems 
to be a sly,fox.” 

“How in the world do you locate an unauthor¬ 
ized station, anyway?” queried Bob. 

“In each district in which there is a radio in¬ 
spector we have what we call directional finders. 
These consist of a combination of a loop aerial 
and a compass and a radio receiving set. We 
have complete maps of the district. When the 
man we’re after is sending, we swing the loop 
aerial around until the signals reach their loudest 
tone. Then a reading is taken on the compass. 
This action is repeated several times, after which 
we turn the loop so as to tune out all sound. 
During the silent period a line is drawn on the 


200 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

map at right angles to the direction of the loop. 
'This line indicates the direction from which the 
sounds are coming. This takes place at the same 
time at all three stations, and where the lines on 
the map intersect is the point where the offender 
can be found.” 

“But I suppose that location isn't very exact, 
is it?” asked Bob. 

“No; but it's usually exact enough,” said 
Brandon. “We go to the place indicated on the 
map, and look about in the neighborhood for 
aerials. Anybody owning them has to show his 
license, if he has one, and if he hasn't—well, that’s 
the man we’re after.” 

“Simple enough,” commented Bob. “But when 
you don’t know how it’s done, it seems like look¬ 
ing for a needle in a haystack.” 

“Yes, and by all the rules it should be easier 
than usual to locate this offender,” said the radio 
inspector, “because he has a peculiarity that marks 
him out.” 

“I’ll bet I know what it is, too,” said Bob 
quickly. 

“You do?” said Brandon, surprised. 

“He stutters badly, and then has to whistle be¬ 
fore he can go on, doesn’t he ?” said Bob. 

“That’s the man, all right,” said Brandon. 
“Do you know anything about him?” 

“Well, if he’s the man we think he is, we don’t 


ON THE TRAIL 


201 


know much good about him,” said Bob, and he 
proceeded to tell Brandon about Dan Cassey and 
the mean way he had tricked Nellie Berwick and 
stolen her money. 

“So you see you’re not the only one looking 
for the stuttering man,” said Bob, in conclusion. 
“We’d like pretty well to find out where he is 
ourselves.” 

“But what makes you think this man I’m look¬ 
ing for is the same one you’re after?” asked 
Brandon. 

“In the first place, there aren’t many people 
who stutter so badly,” said Bob. “And in the 
second place, Miss Berwick told us that she saw 
some radio apparatus on his desk when she was 
in his office.” 

“That certainly goes a long Way in hitching 
up the two,” said the inspector thoughtfully. 
“Now,” he continued, after studying a few min¬ 
utes longer, “I have a proposition to make. I’ve 
checked up my calculations, and I’m going td have 
another try at locating this man to-morrow. As 
you’re both interested in finding him, too, why 
not go with me and help me? Between the three 
of us we ought to find him.” 

“Nothing could suit me better!” exclaimed 
Bob. “How about you, Joe?” 

“Fine,” replied his chum. “To-morrow’s Sat¬ 
urday, so we can go all right. But don’t forget 


202 THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 


that we want to be back when the prize winners 
are announced/' he said, struck by a sudden 
thought. 

“Oh, it won't take us very long to get on the 
ground," said Brandon. “I figure this man we’re 
after is somewhere in Lansdale, and you know 
that isn't more than a two hours' run by auto¬ 
mobile. If we haven't found him by the time 
you should be leaving in order to get back here 
on time, you two can come back by train, and I'll 
stay there. But if we get an early start I think 
the three of us, working together, should locate 
our man pretty quickly. Lansdale isn't a very 
large place, you know." 

“I can start as early as you like," said Bob. 
“How about you, Joe?" 

“That goes for me, too," said Joe. “Set your 
own time, Mr. Brandon." 

“Well, then, suppose you both meet me at 
Hall's garage at eight sharp to-morrow morning," 
proposed Frank Brandon. “I’ll hire a good car 
and be all ready to start by that time." 

“We'll be there on the dot," promised Bob, 
and they all shook hands on the bargain. 

Bob and Joe made their purchases, said good¬ 
bye to the radio inspector, and left the store ex¬ 
citedly discussing their chances of locating the 
rascal Cassey and perhaps recovering Nellie Ber¬ 
wick's stolen money. When they parted to go 


ON THE TRAIL 


203 


Home, each renewed his promise to be on time 
the following morning, and went his way filled 
with hope that at last the scoundrel would per¬ 
haps be brought to justice. 

“But I wish we could be sure that that old 
rascal would be caught up with and be made to 
give back Miss Berwick’s money,” reflected Bob, 
as he turned in at his own home. “She’s in 
Clintonia again. I saw her at a distance to-day.” 


CHAPTER XXy 


THE PRIZE 

But before going to bed that night, Bob had 
an idea which he proceeded at once to put into 
execution, with the result that there were some 
lively telephone exchanges and considerable ex¬ 
citement in various quarters. 

The fruit of his work was seen the following 
morning, when, on reaching Hall’s garage, Mr. 
Brandon, instead of finding only the two boys 
waiting for him, found also Miss Nellie Berwick 
and a Mr. Edgar Wilson, a keen, wide-awake 
lawyer of Clintonia, whom Miss Berwick had re¬ 
tained to look after her interests. 

“I tried to get you also on the telephone last 
night, Mr. Brandon,” Bob explained, after intro¬ 
ductions had been made, “but I couldn’t find you 
in. So I took the liberty of asking Miss Ber¬ 
wick and Mr. Wilson to go along with us on the 
chance that we might round up Dan Cassey.” 

“That’s all right,” responded Mr. Brandon 
warmly. “The boys have already told me, Miss 
204 


THE PRIZE 


205 


Berwick, of the dastardly trick that fellow played 
on you, and I shall be only too happy to have you 
and your lawyer go along with us. It would give 
me the keenest satisfaction to see that fellow get 
his deserts.” 

Miss Berwick thanked him heartily and the 
party took their places in the automobile, which 
held five persons comfortably and was of a mod¬ 
em type. That it was speedy was soon proved 
by the way it sped along the road under the skill¬ 
ful guidance of Mr. Brandon. A rain two days 
before had laid the dust, and the roads were in 
perfect condition. In a surprisingly short time 
they had come in sight of Lansdale, a little village 
on the coast. 

They stopped at the post-office and Brandon 
climbed out of the car and went in. The post¬ 
master eyed him warily, and was at first some¬ 
what disinclined tc^give any information, but the 
sight of the badge that proclaimed Mr. Brandon 
a government official unloosed his tongue and he 
talked freely. 

“Know anybody about here by the name of 
Cassey?” asked Mr. Brandon. 

“Cassey? Cassey?” repeated the postmaster 
ruminatively. “No, there’s nobody of that name 
around here. Or if there is, he’s never been to 
this office to get his mail.” 

“The man I’m speaking of stutters—stutters 


0 


206 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

badly,” said the inspector. “Is there any one like 
that in town?” 

“Just one,” replied the postmaster. “And he 
stutters enough for a dozen. Worst case I ever 
knew. Gets all tangled up and has to whistle 
to go on. But his name’s Reddy.” 

“Has he been here long?” pursued the inspector. 

“Oh, a matter of a month or two,” was the 
reply. “Never saw him before this year. 
Thought perhaps he was one of the early birds of 
the summer visitors that was rushing the season.” 

“Where does he live?” asked Mr. Brandon. 

“Just a little way up the street,” replied the 
postmaster. “Come to the window here and I’ll 
show you the house.” 

He pointed out a little cottage of rather dilap¬ 
idated aspect, above which the keen eye of Mr. 
Brandon saw the end of an aerial. 

He thanked the postmaster and went out to 
his party. 

“I think we have our game bagged all right,” 
he remarked, and rejoiced to see the light that 
came into Miss Berwick’s eyes, “but of course 
I’m not sure as yet.” 

He told them the result of his inquiries, and 
they were delighted. 

“I tell you what I think we had better do,” he 
suggested. “I propose that we leave the auto¬ 
mobile here and go up to the house on foot. 


THE PRIZE 


207 


Three of us will go in, while Miss Berwick and 
Mr. Wilson will stay out of sight at the side of 
the house until they get the sign to enter. The 
surprise may lead to confession and restitution 
if properly managed.” 

The others signified their consent to this and 
proceeded toward the house. Miss Berwick and 
her lawyer stood at the side, where they could 
not be seen from the door, and the inspector, fol¬ 
lowed by the boys, mounted the steps and rang 
the bell. 

There was a moment's delay and then the door 
opened. A short thick-set man stood there with 
his hand on the knob. He wore large horn 
glasses, which may have been because of defective 
sight or possibly as a disguise. The eyes behind 
the glasses were furtive and shifty, and the mouth 
was mean and avaricious. 

“Is this Mr. Reddy ?” asked the inspector 
politely. 

“Th-th-that's my name,” answered the man. 
“W-what can I do f-f-for you?” 

“That depends,” replied Mr. Brandon. “I 
called to see you on a matter of business. May 
I come in?” 

The man eyed his visitors with a look of appre¬ 
hension and annoyance, but finally assented with 
a nod of his head and led the way into a small 
and meagerly furnished living room. 


208 the RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS 


“I see that you have a radio set here,” re¬ 
marked Mr. Brandon, seating himself and looking 
around the room. 

“Y-y-y-yes,” stuttered the man. “W-what 
about it?” 

The inspector threw back his coat and showed 
his badge. At the sight of this symbol of Au¬ 
thority the man gave a violent start. 

“I happen to be a radio telephone inspector,” 
explained Mr. Brandon. 

“O-oh,” said the man, visibly relieved that it 
was no worse. “W-why do you want to see 
me ?” 

“Because you’ve been violating the government 
regulations,” replied the inspector sternly. 
“There have been a number of complaints against 
you, and you’ve got yourself into serious 
trouble.” 

As he spoke he crossed his tegs, which was the 
sign agreed on, and unseen by the man who dur¬ 
ing this conversation had had his back toward 
the boys, Bob tiptoed out to the street and beck¬ 
oned to Miss Berwick and her lawyer, who fol¬ 
lowed him promptly and softly into the room. 

“I’m s-s-sorry,” the man was saying at the 
moment. “I d-d-d-didn’t mean-” 

Just then Bob slammed the door shut with a 
bang. The man jumped, and as he turned about 



THE PRIZE 


20Q 

came face to face with Miss Berwick, who stood 
regarding him with a look of scorn. 

So startled was the man that his glasses 
dropped from his nose and he had to grasp a 
chair to hold himself steady. His face turned a 
greenish hue and rank fright came into his 
narrow eyes. 

“How do you do, Mr. Cassey?” asked Miss 
Berwick. “Do you happen to have my mortgage 
with you?” 

“Mr. Cassey?” repeated Mr. Brandon with af¬ 
fected surprise. “He told me his name was 
Reddy. How about it?” he asked, and his voice 
had the ring of steel. “Have you been trying to 
deceive a government officer?” 

The detected rascal dropped weakly into the 
chair whose back he had been holding. He 
seemed near total collapse. 

“Come now,” said Mr. Wilson, stepping for¬ 
ward and tapping him on the shoulder, “the 
game’s up, Cassey. We’ve got you at last. The 
money or the mortgage, Cassey. Come across 
with one or the other and come across quick. 
It’s that or jail. Take your choice.” 

Dan Cassey, shaking in every limb, tried to 
temporize, and stuttered until he got red in the 
face and seemed on the point of apoplexy. But 
the lawyer was inflexible, and at last Cassey took 


210 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

a key from his pocket and opened a drawer from 
which he took a paper and handed it over to Mr. 
Wilson. The latter ran his eyes over it and his 
face lighted up with satisfaction. 

“It’s the mortgage, all right,” he said, as he 
handed it over to his client. “That settles his 
account with you, Miss Berwick, and I congrat¬ 
ulate you. But it doesn’t settle his account with 
the law. You contemptible scoundrel,” he said, 
addressing Cassey, “you ought to serve a good 
long term for this.” 

Cassey, utterly broken, fell on his knees at this 
and fairly begged for mercy. He stuttered so 
horribly that the boys would have had to laugh 
if it had not been for the tragedy of the wretched 
creature groveling in such abasement. 

Miss Berwick intervened and held a conference 
with her lawyer in a low voice. 

“Well,” said the latter finally, “of course, if 
you refuse to make a charge against him, there’s 
nothing to do but to let him go, though he ought 
to be sent to jail as a warning to others. Get 
up, you worm,” he continued, addressing Cassey, 
“and thank your stars that Miss Berwick’s gen¬ 
erosity keeps you from getting the punishment 
you so richly deserve.” 

They left him there in his shame and disgrace, 
and went back to their car, after Mr. Brandon 
had warned the rascal that any repetition of his 


THE PRIZE 


211 


minor offense would bring down swift penalty 
from the government. 

It was a happy party that rode back to Clin- 
tonia. There were tears in Miss Berwick’s eyes 
as she thanked again and again the boys who for 
the second time had done her such a signal serv¬ 
ice. And Bob and Joe had a sense of satisfac¬ 
tion and exhilaration that was beyond all words 
to express. 

On their way they passed through Ocean Point, 
a summer colony where many of the residents 
of Clintonia had cottages. It was on the sea¬ 
shore and every foot of it was familiar to the 
boys, whose own parents spent a part of the sum¬ 
mer there every year. 

“It won’t be long now before we’ll be on this 
old stamping ground of ours,” remarked Joe, as 
he looked at the surf breaking on the shore. “It 
will be good to be here again. 

“Right you are,” replied Bob. “And we’ll 
bring our radio sets along. This summer will 
be more interesting than any we’ve knoVn 
before.” 

How fully that prophecy was carried out, and 
how exciting were the adventures that awaited 
the boys will be told in the second book of this 
series, to be entitled: “The Radio Boys at 
Ocean Point; Or, The Message That Saved the 
Ship.” 


o- 


212 THE RADIO BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

Herb and Jimmy were as delighted as their 
chums when they heard of the way that Cassey 
had been trapped and forced to make restitution. 
But many of the details had to be postponed until 
another time, for just now their thoughts were 
full of the Ferberton prize which was to be 
awarded that night, and for which they were busy 
in making their final preparations. 

The town hall that night was crowded, and 
many had to be content with standing room. 
Upon the platform were numerous wireless tele¬ 
phone sets that had been received for the com¬ 
petition. 

Mr. Ferberton himself presided at the gather¬ 
ing. He made a most interesting address, in 
which he dealt with the wonders of wireless and 
gave a review of its latest developments. His 
own set, which was one of the largest and most 
powerful the radio boys had ever seen, had been 
installed on the platform with a large horn at¬ 
tached, and for an hour and a half, while waiting 
for the prizes to be awarded, the auditors were 
regaled with a delightful concert. 

In the meantime, a committee of three radio 
experts had been examining the sets submitted in 
competition. They subjected them to various 
tests, taking into account the care displayed in 
workmanship, the ingenuity shown in the choice 
of materials, and the clearness of tone discerned 


THE PRIZE 


213 


when each in turn was connected with the aerial 
and put to a practical test. The choice was dif¬ 
ficult, for many of them showed surprising ex¬ 
cellence for amateurs. 

At last, however, the awards were decided on, 
and Mr. Ferberton, holding the list in his hand, 
advanced to the edge of the platform. The si¬ 
lence became so intense that one could almost 
have heard a pin drop. 

“The first prize,” he said after a few words 
of introduction, “is awarded to Robert Layton.” 

There was a roar of applause, for no one in 
town was more popular than Bob. 

“The second prize goes to Joseph Atwood,” 
continued Mr. Ferberton, and again the hall 
rocked with applause. 

“If there had been a third prize,” the speaker 
concluded, “it would have been awarded to James 
Plummer. As it is, he receives honorable men¬ 
tion.” And Jimmy too had his share of the 
cheering and hand clapping. 

Long after the lights were out and the audience 
dispersed, the chums sat on Bob s porch, elated 
and hilarious. 

“Fm the only rank outsider,” grinned Herb. 
“I take off my hat to the rest of the bunch. 
You’re the fellows!” 

“You needn’t take it off to me,” laughed 
Jimmy. “I got only honorable mention, and 


214 THE RADI ° BOYS’ FIRST WIRELESS 

there isn’t much nourishment in that. Not half 
as much as there is in a doughnut. I could have 
used that money, too.” 

“What are you two bloated plutocrats thinking 
of?” asked Herb of Bob and Joe, who had let 
the others do most of the talking. 

“Radio,” replied Joe. 

“The most wonderful thing in the world,” 
declared Bob. 


THE TOM SWIFT SERIES 

By VICTOR APPLETON 

UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING. INDIVIDUAL COLORED WRAPPERS. 


These spirited tales, convey in a realistic way, the wonderful 
advances in land and sea locomotion. Stories like these are impressed 
upon the memory and their reading is productive only of good. 

TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT, 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE 
TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS 
TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE 
TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER 
TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT: 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP 

TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL 

TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH 
TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS 
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE 

^^xTrhTm.AP. Pub lishers, New York 



















THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH 
SERIES 

By GRAHAM B. FORBES 

Never was there a cleaner, brighter, more manly boy 
than Frank Allen, the hero of this series of boys* tales, and 
never was there a better crowd of lads to associate with than 
the students of the School. All boys will read these stories 
with deep interest The rivalry between the towns along the 
river was of the keenest, and plots and counterplots to win 
the champions, at baseball, at football, at boat racing, at 
track athletics, and at ice hockey, were without number. 
Any lad reading one volume of this series will surely want 
the others. 

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH 
Or The All Around Rivals of the School 

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE DIAMOND 
Or Winning Out by Plrck 

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE RIVER 
Or The Boat Race Plot that Failed 

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE GRIDIRON 
Or The Struggle for the Silver Cup 

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE ICE 
Or Out for the Hockey Championship 

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN TRACK ATH¬ 
LETICS 

Dr A Long Run that Won 

tHE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN WINTER SPORTS 
Dr Stirring Doings on Skates and Iceboats 

12mo. Illustrated. Handsomely bound in cloth, with cover 
design and wrappers in colors. 


Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York 









THE OUTDOOR CHUMS SERIES* 

By CAPTAIN QUINCY ALLEN 

The outdoor chums are four wide-awake lads, sons of 
wealthy men of a small city located on a lake. The boys - 
love outdoor life, and are greatly interested in hunting, fish¬ 
ing, and picture taking. They have motor cycles, motor 
boats, canoes, etc., and during their vacations go everywhere 
and have all sorts of thrilling adventures. The stories give 
full directions for camping out, how to fish, how to hunt wild 
animals and prepare the skins for stuffing, how to manage a 
canoe, how to swim, etc. Full of the spirit of outdoor life* 

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS 

Or The First Tour of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club, 

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE LAKE 
Qr Lively Adventures on Wildcat Island. 

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE FOREST 
Or Laying the Ghost of Oak Ridge. 

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE GULF, 

Or Rescuing the Lost Balloonists. 

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AFTER BIG GAME 
Or Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness. 

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON A HOUSEBOAT 
Or The Rivals of the Mississippi. 

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE BIG WOODS 
Or The Rival Hunters at Lumber Run. 

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AT CABIN POINT 
Or The Golden Cup Mystery. 

12mo. Averaging 240 pages. Illustrated. Handsomely 
bound in Cloth. 

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York 












THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS 
SERIES 

BY VICTOR APPLETON 


UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING. INDIVIDUAL COLORED WRAPPERS. 


Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world over, 
and in this line of books the reader is given a full description 
of how the films are made—the scenes of little dramas, indoors 
and out, trick pictures to satisfy the curious, soul-stirring pic¬ 
tures of city affairs, life in the Wild West, among the cowboys 
and Indians, thrilling rescues along the seacoast, the daring of 
picture hunters in the jungle among savage beasts, and the 
great risks run in picturing conditions in a land of earth¬ 
quakes. The volumes teem with adventures and will be found 
interesting from first chapter to last. 

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS 
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE WEST 
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE COAST 
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE 
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN EARTH¬ 
QUAKE LAND 

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AND THE FLOOD 
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT PANAMA 
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA 
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE WAR 

FRONT 

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON FRENCH 

BATTLEFIELDS 
MOVING PICTURE BOYS’ FIRST SHOWHOUSE 
MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT SEASIDE PARK 
MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON BROADWAY 
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS’ OUTDOOR 

EXHIBITION 

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS’ NEW IDEA 
Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York 















THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS 
SERIES 

By LAURA LEE HOPE 


Author of “The Bobbsey Twins Series.” 


12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING 


The adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere. Their father, 
a widower, is an actor who has taken up work for the 
“movies.” Both girls wish to aid him in his work and visit 
various localities to act in all sorts of pictures. 

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS 
Or First Appearance in Photo Dramas. 

Having lost his voice, the father of the girls goes into the movies 
and the girls follow. Tells how many “parlor dramas” are filmed. 

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM 
Or Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays. <, 

Full of fun in the country, the haps and mishaps of taking film 
plays, and giving an account of two unusual discoveries. 


THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND 
Or The Proof on the Film. 

A tale of wirfter adventures in the wilderness, showing how the 
photo-play actors sometimes suffer. 

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS 
s Or Lost in the Wilds of Florida. 

( How they went to the land of palms, played many parts in dramas 
before the camera; were lost, and aided others who were also lost. 


'THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH 
i Or Great Days Among the Cowboys. 

I All who have ever seen moving pictures of the great West will 
want to know just how they are made. This volume gives every detail 
and is full of clean fun and excitement. 


THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA 
Or a Pictured Shipwreck that Became Real. 

A thrilling account of the girls’ experiences on the water. 

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS 
Or The Sham Battles at Oak Farm. 

The girls play important parts in big battle scenes and have plenty 
of hard work along with considerable fun. 


Grosset & Dunlap, 


Publishers, New York 

















SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES 

By LAURA LEE HOPE 

Author of “The Bobbsey Twins Books," 

“ The Bunny Brown Series," 

“The Make-Believe Series,” Etc. 

Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding 

Delightful stories for little boys and girls which sprung 
into immediate popularity. To know the six little Bunk¬ 
ers is to take them at once to your heart, they are so in¬ 
tensely human, so full of fun and cute sayings. Each 
story has a little plot of its own—one that can be easily- 
followed—and all are written in Miss Hope’s most enter¬ 
taining manner. Clean, wholesome volumes which ought 
to be on the bookshelf of every child in the land. 

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL’S 
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO’S 
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM’S 
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORDS 
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED’S 
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN’S 
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COWBOY JACK’S 

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York 












THE ! BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS 

For Little Men and Women 
By LAURA LEE HOPE 

Author of “The Bunny Brown” Series, Etc. 

12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDINS 


Copyright publications which cannot be obtained else¬ 
where. Books that charm the hearts of the little ones, 
and of which they never tire. 

THE BOBBSEY TWINS 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY 
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY 
ISLAND 

THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE 
SEA 

THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST 


Grosset & Dunlap, 


Publishers, New York 















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